Donald Trump’s North Carolina death spiral: Even white suburbanites flee the “idiot”
Only strong anti-Clinton sentiment is keeping Trump afloat in North Carolina's heavily Republican suburbs
Republished with permission of the Author Simon Maloy and Salon Magazine in which the Article first appeared.
North Carolina should be a hotly contested swing state. In 2008, Barack Obama turned North Carolina into the leading edge of the Democratic resurgence in the South, narrowly snatching the state from John McCain thanks to a surge in black voter turnout. Mitt Romney managed to claw the state back into the Republican column in 2012 by juicing rural and suburban turnout enough to overcome the Democratic advantage in the cities. At the start of the 2016 election cycle, the state was expected to be one of the most hard-fought battlegrounds.
And up until a few weeks ago, the Tar Heel State was indeed a toss-up: depending on which polling model and aggregator you choose to believe, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were running about even in mid-September in North Carolina, with Trump probably enjoying a slight edge. But after two bad debate performances, the release of the “grab them by the pussy” tape, and an ever-growing number of sexual assault allegations, Trump looks to be fading. All the recent North Carolina polling puts Hillary Clinton up by low- to mid-single digits. As of this writing, FiveThirtyEight gives Trump less than a 3-in-10 shot of winning the state.
I went down to North Carolina this past weekend to see Trump speak to his supporters and break a malfunctioning teleprompter at a rally in Charlotte. Then I headed southeast to the wealthy suburbs of Union County to chat up some voters and get their impressions of the 2016 race and the Trump candidacy. What I found was a mix of voters who are either having a lot of difficulty backing the Republican nominee or are voting Trump primarily because they can’t abide by the idea of another Clinton presidency.
Union County is an area of North Carolina where Republican presidential candidates should expect to do well. It’s a populous county (the state’s ninth-largest, per themost recent estimates), and it’s whiter, wealthier and more highly educated than the state as a whole. In 2012, Mitt Romney put up one of his biggest statewide victories in Union County, beating Barack Obama by more than 28,000 votes. Walking through the Union County suburbs of Indian Trail and Weddington, however, I ran into a number of voters who would have been open to voting Republican this cycle, but are having a lot of trouble convincing themselves to vote for Trump.
“I’m actually considering a third-party candidate,” said Keith Garbrick, a 36-year-old civil engineer who has voted Republican his entire life but is now leaning strongly towards Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson. “It’s difficult to see a leader that’s as careless with his words and with his actions,” he said in explaining his resistance to Trump. “It just seems to be the complete opposite of what I would expect out of the Republican Party.” When I asked if he would have been more amenable to voting for Trump before all the allegations of sexual assault starting coming out, Garbrick said yes. “It wasn’t the best candidate we could have put forward, but I think it was one that was tolerable,” he said.
The sexual assault allegations against Trump also influenced Tommy Crawford, a 57-year-old transportation worker I spoke to at a coffee shop in Indian Trail. A self-identified independent who voted for Obama twice, Crawford said he is still undecided but lately has begun leaning towards Clinton. I asked him why, and he said that while he had once been open to the idea of backing Trump, “the accusations towards women, and the bus — the video with the bus, I think that was it.” That sentiment, Crawford added, was common among his friends and associates. “The people I know are more and more now leaning towards Hillary because of the last few weeks,” he said.
“I just think Trump — he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he’s an idiot,” said Eric Schafer, a 26-year-old nonprofit employee who voted Republican in the last two presidential elections and supported John Kasich in the Republican primaries. “I feel like if he’s elected, we’re going to have some sort of war.” Still, Schafer said he was open to giving Trump a chance to make his case, and for him the question would ultimately come down to economics versus morality. “I don’t know if Trump’s going to be best for the world, but I think he’s going to be best economically for some people that I hang out with and myself,” he explained. “But I don’t know if his morality is going to be aligned with what I want.”
For a Republican trying to win North Carolina in 2016, voter reactions like these are not at all what you want to hear. After eight years of Democratic rule in the White House, a GOP candidate should, in theory, have a good shot at pulling together solid Republicans and persuadable independents into a pretty strong coalition. But few of the Union County Trump voters I talked to had much enthusiasm for the nominee. They were more animated by a desire to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.
“She is crooked, she is a criminal, she is just not a good person, she’s a mean, mean person, whereas he’ll make some change,” Terry McDonald, a 45-year-old hospitality industry employee told me when I asked him why he supported Trump. “He may not be the best candidate, but he’s all we got.” Jori, a Trump-supporting supermarket employee in Weddington, told me that Trump “doesn’t really try to cover up the fact that he’s an idiot, as far as the remarks he makes about women.” But she added, “Hillary, she’s no better, she’s just as bad.”
Kerry Scialabba, a 45-year-old stay-at-home mom, also planned to vote Trump, but with reservations. “I don’t know that I’m totally in for Trump, but I am totally opposed to Hillary Clinton,” she said. Her concerns were Trump’s “quick mouth” and the sexual assault allegations. “I’m hoping that if he did that, he’ll learn from this and move forward and make amends for what he’s done,” she said. “It wouldn’t change my vote in the election because I feel like we’re looking at the country as a whole and where we need to go, and he’s going to be the right person between the two of them.”
I had many variations of this same conversation with lots of voters in a county that should be fertile ground for a Republican presidential nominee. They either can’t quite come around to backing Trump, or they’re convincing themselves that he’s the lesser evil. Right now, it seems like the best thing Trump has going for him in North Carolina is the fact that he’s running against Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump’s North Carolina death spiral: Even white suburbanites flee the “idiot”
Only strong anti-Clinton sentiment is keeping Trump afloat in North Carolina's heavily Republican suburbs
Republished with permission of the Author Simon Maloy and Salon Magazine in which the Article first appeared.
North Carolina should be a hotly contested swing state. In 2008, Barack Obama turned North Carolina into the leading edge of the Democratic resurgence in the South, narrowly snatching the state from John McCain thanks to a surge in black voter turnout. Mitt Romney managed to claw the state back into the Republican column in 2012 by juicing rural and suburban turnout enough to overcome the Democratic advantage in the cities. At the start of the 2016 election cycle, the state was expected to be one of the most hard-fought battlegrounds.
And up until a few weeks ago, the Tar Heel State was indeed a toss-up: depending on which polling model and aggregator you choose to believe, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were running about even in mid-September in North Carolina, with Trump probably enjoying a slight edge. But after two bad debate performances, the release of the “grab them by the pussy” tape, and an ever-growing number of sexual assault allegations, Trump looks to be fading. All the recent North Carolina polling puts Hillary Clinton up by low- to mid-single digits. As of this writing, FiveThirtyEight gives Trump less than a 3-in-10 shot of winning the state.
I went down to North Carolina this past weekend to see Trump speak to his supporters and break a malfunctioning teleprompter at a rally in Charlotte. Then I headed southeast to the wealthy suburbs of Union County to chat up some voters and get their impressions of the 2016 race and the Trump candidacy. What I found was a mix of voters who are either having a lot of difficulty backing the Republican nominee or are voting Trump primarily because they can’t abide by the idea of another Clinton presidency.
Union County is an area of North Carolina where Republican presidential candidates should expect to do well. It’s a populous county (the state’s ninth-largest, per themost recent estimates), and it’s whiter, wealthier and more highly educated than the state as a whole. In 2012, Mitt Romney put up one of his biggest statewide victories in Union County, beating Barack Obama by more than 28,000 votes. Walking through the Union County suburbs of Indian Trail and Weddington, however, I ran into a number of voters who would have been open to voting Republican this cycle, but are having a lot of trouble convincing themselves to vote for Trump.
“I’m actually considering a third-party candidate,” said Keith Garbrick, a 36-year-old civil engineer who has voted Republican his entire life but is now leaning strongly towards Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson. “It’s difficult to see a leader that’s as careless with his words and with his actions,” he said in explaining his resistance to Trump. “It just seems to be the complete opposite of what I would expect out of the Republican Party.” When I asked if he would have been more amenable to voting for Trump before all the allegations of sexual assault starting coming out, Garbrick said yes. “It wasn’t the best candidate we could have put forward, but I think it was one that was tolerable,” he said.
The sexual assault allegations against Trump also influenced Tommy Crawford, a 57-year-old transportation worker I spoke to at a coffee shop in Indian Trail. A self-identified independent who voted for Obama twice, Crawford said he is still undecided but lately has begun leaning towards Clinton. I asked him why, and he said that while he had once been open to the idea of backing Trump, “the accusations towards women, and the bus — the video with the bus, I think that was it.” That sentiment, Crawford added, was common among his friends and associates. “The people I know are more and more now leaning towards Hillary because of the last few weeks,” he said.
“I just think Trump — he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he’s an idiot,” said Eric Schafer, a 26-year-old nonprofit employee who voted Republican in the last two presidential elections and supported John Kasich in the Republican primaries. “I feel like if he’s elected, we’re going to have some sort of war.” Still, Schafer said he was open to giving Trump a chance to make his case, and for him the question would ultimately come down to economics versus morality. “I don’t know if Trump’s going to be best for the world, but I think he’s going to be best economically for some people that I hang out with and myself,” he explained. “But I don’t know if his morality is going to be aligned with what I want.”
For a Republican trying to win North Carolina in 2016, voter reactions like these are not at all what you want to hear. After eight years of Democratic rule in the White House, a GOP candidate should, in theory, have a good shot at pulling together solid Republicans and persuadable independents into a pretty strong coalition. But few of the Union County Trump voters I talked to had much enthusiasm for the nominee. They were more animated by a desire to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.
“She is crooked, she is a criminal, she is just not a good person, she’s a mean, mean person, whereas he’ll make some change,” Terry McDonald, a 45-year-old hospitality industry employee told me when I asked him why he supported Trump. “He may not be the best candidate, but he’s all we got.” Jori, a Trump-supporting supermarket employee in Weddington, told me that Trump “doesn’t really try to cover up the fact that he’s an idiot, as far as the remarks he makes about women.” But she added, “Hillary, she’s no better, she’s just as bad.”
Kerry Scialabba, a 45-year-old stay-at-home mom, also planned to vote Trump, but with reservations. “I don’t know that I’m totally in for Trump, but I am totally opposed to Hillary Clinton,” she said. Her concerns were Trump’s “quick mouth” and the sexual assault allegations. “I’m hoping that if he did that, he’ll learn from this and move forward and make amends for what he’s done,” she said. “It wouldn’t change my vote in the election because I feel like we’re looking at the country as a whole and where we need to go, and he’s going to be the right person between the two of them.”
I had many variations of this same conversation with lots of voters in a county that should be fertile ground for a Republican presidential nominee. They either can’t quite come around to backing Trump, or they’re convincing themselves that he’s the lesser evil. Right now, it seems like the best thing Trump has going for him in North Carolina is the fact that he’s running against Hillary Clinton.
Trump's poll numbers show his ceiling is made of steel, not glass By Bob Beckel, contributor
Getty Images
After being around politics for 40 years, very little surprises me, except when it comes to polls. Every time I think that political analysts and writers will finally recognize that most of them don’t understand much about political polls, they prove me wrong. They don’t know how to read them, they don’t understand the importance of cross tabs within a given poll and they don’t know how to analyze them.
This wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were just trying to show their political props to friends, but some of these “political pros” go on TV, or write columns interpreting polls for millions of voters who are just now beginning to focus on the presidential race. Most voters assume because these political “pros” are on TV or write for national papers they know politics. Sadly, most don’t have a clue.
A few examples from the past two weeks, "Polls indicate race for White House tightens as Trump closes in on Clinton". And, “Trump’s pivot to a more disciplined candidate has moved him within striking distance of Clinton in swing states polls indicate." As I will illustrate, Trump has not closed on Clinton at all;
An analysis of the data from several reliable polls indicates Trump has not moved up in the polls for the last six weeks, despite showing some signs of discipline; "New Trump team repositions Trump as 'presidential' and the strategy, according to polls, is paying off”. A review of polls from two weeks before Paul Manafort (Trump’s former campaign chairman) resigned last month indicates no positive movement for Trump since his new team was named.
A review of dozens of polls taken from early August thru September 11th in four swing states indicates Trump has gained no ground, rather Clinton has lost ground. Clinton’s post convention bump lasted longer than most, but that can be attributed to Trump’s mistakes in August. Clinton’s current poll standings are what would be expected of any candidate with unfavorable ratings in the mid fifties.
The polls used for this analysis are drawn from the archives of RealClearPolitics.com. The poll dates range from 8/9/16 to 9/12/16 and include Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Pennsylvania: Trump’s average support from 8/9 to 9/8 is 38.5% which is exactly where he was in the first PA poll on 8/9. During the same period, Clinton went from a high of 48% on 8/9 to a low of 44% on 9/8, a loss of 4 points.
North Carolina: Trump’s average support from 8/9 to 9/8 was 40.1%, exactly where he started in the first NC poll on 9/8. During the same month, Clinton went from 43% on 8/9 to 42% on 9/8, a loss of 1 point.
Ohio: Trump’s average support from 8/9 to 9/11 was 39.5% exactly where he stands on 9/11, but that is down 3 points from where he started in the first Ohio poll on 8/9, 42%. During the same month, Clinton went from 44% on 8/9 to 46% on 9/11 a gain of 2 points.
Florida: Trump’s average support from 8/11 to 9/12 was 42%. The latest Florida poll had Trump at 44%, a slight gain of 2 points. During the same month, Clinton went from 45% on 8/11 to 42% on 9/12, a loss of 3 points.
Trump has gained no new support in these crucial swing states in the past 4 weeks. In 3 of the 4 swing states, Trump gained nothing. Only in Florida did Trump show any marginal gains. What these polls indicate is that Trump has a ceiling of voter support that he has not been able to crack.
Moreover, polling data among key demographic groups show Trump making NO progress among African Americans, Hispanics, or white suburban women (single or married). McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012 both got trounced by blacks and Hispanics. By all indications, Trump will do much worse among minorities than either McCain or Romney.
For Trump to have any chance of winning, he will need 65% or more of the white vote. Both McCain and Romney won white women by approximately 15% over President Obama, most of whom were suburban voters.
Drawing from extensive data from the Washington Post’s massive survey of over 79,000 voters coupled with Senate and U.S. House polls of suburbs in swing states, Hillary Clinton is currently carrying white suburban women by 15 points over Trump. Which means Trump would need a swing of 30% among suburban women to attain the normal support for GOP presidential candidates.
Trump has not closed any ground against Clinton in the last 30 days. Clinton, though, has lost support. Polls indicated that millions of voters would chosen Hillary Clinton over Donald Trumpafter a very successful Democratic Convention. Many since have backed off. What I have learned over hundreds of campaigns is if you have lost voters who have supported you in the past, you can get them back. If you never had them, it is very difficult sell.
The lesson here is that Hillary Clinton’s ceiling is still glass, and she can still crack it. Donald Trump has a ceiling as well and it’s in the low 40s.
The difference is Trump’s ceiling is not glass, but is made of hardened steel.
Bob Beckel is a political analyst for CNN, and a Contributor for The Hill.
Media misfeasance on the campaign trail: Free pass for Trump on his taxes and health, but Hillary is hounded.Trump rails against a "rigged system," yet the system is grading him on an egregiously advantageous curve
Among the many harrowingly unique angles to the 2016 presidential election, there’s one constant that remains true from previous campaigns in the modern era, but which has been pulled into critical focus given the participation of Donald Trump as well as a Democratic nominee who happens to be a woman. What’s abundantly clear today is that the default condition of presidential elections is for the Republican to hover within a point or two of his Democratic opponent regardless of how utterly destructive and incompetent he is.
The breaking news about Hillary Clinton’s minimally problematic bout with pneumonia has sparked just the latest in a long list of examples of a false equivalence in the press — a double-standard that’s not only a news media problem, but a problem with a not insignificant number of voters.
Specifically, the Republican candidate, Trump, can spend 15 months hubristically failing to disclose personal details about his finances and his health, with only a hilariously contrived doctor’s note from a physician who comports himself like a shifty background character on “The Simpsons” to assuage any concerns. The Republican can blurt a syllabus of gaffes, lies and brutally offensive remarks several times a day without apology and still climb to within striking distance of the Democrat who, after using a clever turn of phrase like “basket of deplorables” to accurately describe Trump’s alt-right base, is described as having her worst week of the campaign so far. The Republican can openly encourage “Second Amendment people” to take a shot at the Democratic candidate while wondering why we can’t use our nuclear arsenal, and, in the long run, it really doesn’t impact his poll numbers.
The trendlines at Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight exhibit an increasingly competitive race, telling us that Trump’s bottomless pit of prior campaign sins is almost completely irrelevant. The rightfully wide margins of early August were never destined to hold because the system favors the Republican despite every disqualifying blurt.
We’re existing within a phantom zone in which a dangerous, undisciplined, unqualified reality-show goon is being graded on the most ridiculous curve in the history of American elections by very serious pundits like Mark Halperin and Chris Cilizza, who desperately want both sides to be equally horrendous, while falsely painting the Republican side as inevitably more successful. The DC media, which Donald Trump has targeted with expulsion from his nonexistent press pool and who will, if elected, surely punish by denying access (at best) and by IRS audit or imprisonment (at worst), can’t scramble over itself fast enough to re-cast this election as being Trump’s to lose. Perhaps it’s because they’ve been threatened by a Nixonian blacklist, or perhaps because they’re seeking a redemptive twist to the narrative, or perhaps this is just how they roll. Knowing how this behavior is a feature and not a glitch, I tend to believe it’s all three explanations working in tandem even though none of these motives ought to exist in practice.
Cable news, specifically, is so terrified of being accused of having an alleged “liberal media bias” that actual news events are misreported in order to self-consciously sidestep the accusation. The reality, however, is that we’re dealing with political coverage, and if you’re not offending someone, you’re not telling the truth. And the truth of that matter is that given Trump’s record as a candidate alone, there’s no reason why his coverage should be so unnaturally balanced with Hillary’s.
No, her failure to disclose an illness within 48 hours isn’t worse to the point of being a possible campaign killer than Trump’s failure to disclose his tax returns and personal health records for more than a year while lying about the reasons why, in addition to being in obviously obese condition at 70-years-old, arguably unfit psychologically, and operating with financially, ethically and legally unsavory business methods. But here we are with Hillary’s lead in various battleground states evaporating by the day despite her opponent’s unprecedented roster of negatives, and with television coverage elevating her pneumonia disclosure to the status of a disqualifying trespass.
Put another way: while Trump might bitch about a “rigged system,” the reality is that the system is grading him on the most egregiously advantageous curve in the history of American politics. Trump is getting away with murder because, as the polls seem to indicate, Republicans will always get the benefit of the doubt from both rank-and-file voters and their thought-controllers in the television and internet news media. Again, the default condition is for a race that’s within the margin of error irrespective of the fact that he’s, without exception, totally out of his depth.
Rather than acknowledging the astoundingly obvious and otherwise admirable fact that Hillary successfully endured numerous campaign events, including a televised commander-in-chief forum last week, while suffering from a temporary illness that’d knock the most robust athlete off his or her feet for days, she’s characterized in the press as a feeble old crone who can’t endure the rigors of a presidential campaign, even though the exact opposite is objectively true. This is possibly the most illustrative example of how the GOP candidate’s chances of winning are automatically inflated by a cowardly press. It’s embedded in the code. The second best example is, of course, the fact that Hillary is routinely criticized for her lack of press availabilities and for apparently “ditching” her press pool when Trump doesn’t even really have a press pool. Hell, during the once again overly amplified controversy surrounding Hillary’s David-Milch-esque “basket of deplorables” remark, no one in the establishment press has bothered to acknowledge that Trump’s entire campaign is predicated on attacking political correctness, yet he’s so butthurt by Hillary’s comment that he demanded she apologize or drop out because of it. (Perhaps Hillary should’ve prefaced her deplorables comment with a trigger warning.)
The polls shouldn’t be this close. But they are, and it’s in large part due to the fact that chunks of the press and the American electorate alike would rather elect a Republican, Trump, with all of his routinely grievous behavior, than a far more qualified Democratic woman who had an email server in her house and who failed to disclose pneumonia quickly enough. Damn her. We’re a nation that too often elevates the celebrity freak show over competence. Americans tend to champion villains while desperately seeking a loophole with which to demonize the truly gifted. We elect proudly moronic candidates because they’re just like us, even though they ought to be better and smarter than us. There’s no level of shame that could ever fit the abhorrence of it all, but this is precisely how and why Trump can win.God Help America. God Save America from the Nudnil Donald Trump
Self-proclaimed “genius” reaches new highs in stupidity: Trump puts his incompetence on full display
This week Donald Trump has gone the extra mile to remind America he's clueless, dangerous and inept
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to Matt Lauer during the Commander in Chief Forum (Credit: Reuters)
In anticipation of last night’s “Commander in Chief” town hall forum on NBC the two presidential candidates this week engaged in a war of words over their respective qualifications. On Tuesday Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said that Donald Trump was “temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president.” Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, responded on Wednesday morning with a speech in Philadelphia declaring Clinton “trigger happy and very unstable, whether we like it or not.”
The Clinton campaign reacted with yet another ad featuring Trump’s own words this time disparaging veterans and their families. The anti-Trump Priorities USA SuperPAC went even further with a new spot that shows Trump saying, “I love war.” Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway responded by saying the bizarre comment was taken out of context but the full quote, which he gave last November at a wild Fort Dodge, Iowa, rally (the same one where he called Ben Carson a child molester), is even worse than what it sounds like in the ad:
“I’m good at war. I’ve had a lot of wars of my own. I’m really good at war. I love war in a certain way, but only when we win.”
Trump has never been in the service, although he has said,”I always felt I was in the military” because of his education at a military-themed boarding school and he believes he has “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”
That comment “I’m good at war” says everything about Trump as he demonstrated last night at the town hall forum that he is indeed unfit to be president of the United States. There were many aspects of his performance that had people gasping at the mere idea of this man in a position of real power, not the least of which was his comment that President Barack Obama compares unfavorably to Russian President Vladimir Putin who “has an 85 percent approval rating” and is “very much a leader” because he has “strong control over his country.”
But it was around the question of ISIS and the Middle East where he really showed his true colors. He was upset that Hillary Clinton had earlier claimed that he had lied when he said he had been against the Iraq War and defended himself by pointing to an Esquire magazine article from 2004 — which doesn’t really help since the war began in the spring of 2003. The fact-checkers have declared his pants are on fire numerous times on this but he just keeps saying it.
Last night he also made a passing reference to someone “asking him about Iraq” 14 years ago, and you may be surprised to learn that at that same crazy Iowa rally he told the crowd that a delegation from the White House came to him to ask his opinion and he advised not to go in because it would destabilize the region. To the best of my knowledge this claim has never been validated. It’s possible, of course, this was the Bush administration. But let’s just say that it’s as likely as Trump’s witnessing thousands of New Jersey Muslims cheering after 9/11.
He said he told them:
You’ll knock the hell out of one and the other one is going to come and take over the other. You don’t have to be a genius to figure this out even though I am a genius.
And then he added:
And by the way, I’m more militaristic than anybody in this room. I’m going to make our military so strong, so powerful.
Everyone seems to think that Trump has “pivoted” from his position that he could not reveal his plan to defeat ISIS to his announcement today that he would give the generals 30 days from the inauguration to come up with one. But that’s wrong. Trump’s secret plan is not so secret. At that same rally last fall, Trump spoke about it plainly:
“I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me. . . . I would bomb the shit out of ’em. . . . I’d blow up the pipes. I’d blow up the — I’d blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left. And you know what, you get Exxon to come in there and in two months — you ever see these guys how good they are? The great oil companies? They’ll rebuild that sucker brand-new. It’ll be beautiful. And I’d bring it, and I’d take the oil.”
At the forum, he reiterated this belief that America should “take the oil” because he thinks this will make ISIS surrender and has taken to saying “to the victor goes the spoils” apparently unaware that this is a considered a war crime. He has said in the past it would require a permanent force to protect the oil but that it wouldn’t take much.
Trump said that under Obama and Clinton’s leadership “the generals have been reduced to rubble” and “reduced to a point where it’s embarrassing for our country.” He sounded as if he planned to fire some of them, which isn’t actually something the president can do. As he is wont to do he brought up his favorite, General George Patton, saying that he’s “spinning in his grave” over the state of affairs in the military. The good news is that he didn’t bring up General Black Jack Pershing and endorse mass executions with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood as he often does on the trail. He maintained that he still believes in his own plan for Iraq and says he won’t necessarily follow the generals’ advice.
So, the GOP nominee for commander in chief tells people that he’s “good at war,” “has had a lot of wars of his own” and “loves war in a certain way” despite never having been in the military. He also believes he’s a “genius” who is “more militaristic” than anyone in the room. His plan to defeat ISIS is to blow up the Iraqi oil wells and have Exxon come in and rebuild them. And he believes that half the military leadership are fools and thinks he can just fire the ones he doesn’t like.
But there’s nothing delusional about any of that so there’s no need to concern yourselves that the poll numbers are tightening. If he happens to pull this off, what could go wrong?
Self-proclaimed “genius” reaches new highs in stupidity: Trump puts his incompetence on full display
This week Donald Trump has gone the extra mile to remind America he's clueless, dangerous and inept
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to Matt Lauer during the Commander in Chief Forum (Credit: Reuters)
In anticipation of last night’s “Commander in Chief” town hall forum on NBC the two presidential candidates this week engaged in a war of words over their respective qualifications. On Tuesday Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said that Donald Trump was “temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president.” Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, responded on Wednesday morning with a speech in Philadelphia declaring Clinton “trigger happy and very unstable, whether we like it or not.”
The Clinton campaign reacted with yet another ad featuring Trump’s own words this time disparaging veterans and their families. The anti-Trump Priorities USA SuperPAC went even further with a new spot that shows Trump saying, “I love war.” Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway responded by saying the bizarre comment was taken out of context but the full quote, which he gave last November at a wild Fort Dodge, Iowa, rally (the same one where he called Ben Carson a child molester), is even worse than what it sounds like in the ad:
“I’m good at war. I’ve had a lot of wars of my own. I’m really good at war. I love war in a certain way, but only when we win.”
Trump has never been in the service, although he has said,”I always felt I was in the military” because of his education at a military-themed boarding school and he believes he has “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”
That comment “I’m good at war” says everything about Trump as he demonstrated last night at the town hall forum that he is indeed unfit to be president of the United States. There were many aspects of his performance that had people gasping at the mere idea of this man in a position of real power, not the least of which was his comment that President Barack Obama compares unfavorably to Russian President Vladimir Putin who “has an 85 percent approval rating” and is “very much a leader” because he has “strong control over his country.”
But it was around the question of ISIS and the Middle East where he really showed his true colors. He was upset that Hillary Clinton had earlier claimed that he had lied when he said he had been against the Iraq War and defended himself by pointing to an Esquire magazine article from 2004 — which doesn’t really help since the war began in the spring of 2003. The fact-checkers have declared his pants are on fire numerous times on this but he just keeps saying it.
Last night he also made a passing reference to someone “asking him about Iraq” 14 years ago, and you may be surprised to learn that at that same crazy Iowa rally he told the crowd that a delegation from the White House came to him to ask his opinion and he advised not to go in because it would destabilize the region. To the best of my knowledge this claim has never been validated. It’s possible, of course, this was the Bush administration. But let’s just say that it’s as likely as Trump’s witnessing thousands of New Jersey Muslims cheering after 9/11.
He said he told them:
You’ll knock the hell out of one and the other one is going to come and take over the other. You don’t have to be a genius to figure this out even though I am a genius.
And then he added:
And by the way, I’m more militaristic than anybody in this room. I’m going to make our military so strong, so powerful.
Everyone seems to think that Trump has “pivoted” from his position that he could not reveal his plan to defeat ISIS to his announcement today that he would give the generals 30 days from the inauguration to come up with one. But that’s wrong. Trump’s secret plan is not so secret. At that same rally last fall, Trump spoke about it plainly:
“I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me. . . . I would bomb the shit out of ’em. . . . I’d blow up the pipes. I’d blow up the — I’d blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left. And you know what, you get Exxon to come in there and in two months — you ever see these guys how good they are? The great oil companies? They’ll rebuild that sucker brand-new. It’ll be beautiful. And I’d bring it, and I’d take the oil.”
At the forum, he reiterated this belief that America should “take the oil” because he thinks this will make ISIS surrender and has taken to saying “to the victor goes the spoils” apparently unaware that this is a considered a war crime. He has said in the past it would require a permanent force to protect the oil but that it wouldn’t take much.
Trump said that under Obama and Clinton’s leadership “the generals have been reduced to rubble” and “reduced to a point where it’s embarrassing for our country.” He sounded as if he planned to fire some of them, which isn’t actually something the president can do. As he is wont to do he brought up his favorite, General George Patton, saying that he’s “spinning in his grave” over the state of affairs in the military. The good news is that he didn’t bring up General Black Jack Pershing and endorse mass executions with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood as he often does on the trail. He maintained that he still believes in his own plan for Iraq and says he won’t necessarily follow the generals’ advice.
So, the GOP nominee for commander in chief tells people that he’s “good at war,” “has had a lot of wars of his own” and “loves war in a certain way” despite never having been in the military. He also believes he’s a “genius” who is “more militaristic” than anyone in the room. His plan to defeat ISIS is to blow up the Iraqi oil wells and have Exxon come in and rebuild them. And he believes that half the military leadership are fools and thinks he can just fire the ones he doesn’t like.
But there’s nothing delusional about any of that so there’s no need to concern yourselves that the poll numbers are tightening. If he happens to pull this off, what could go wrong?
This weekend with prepared answers already memorized, Trump takes his fake black outreach program on the road.Trump has canned responses for his talk with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Here are the questions he needs to be asked
Bishop Wayne T. Jackson; Donald Trump (Credit: MSNBC/AP/Chris Carlson/Photo montage by Salon)
Donald Trump began his faux outreach campaign to African-American voters by calling them uneducated unemployed losers whose lives are a living hell. Beginning this weekend, the second stage of Trump’s outreach campaign to African-American voters will reportedly consist of meetings at a select group of black churches, a tour of inner-city communities like Detroit and an interview on the Impact Network.
The New York Times has obtained a leaked copy of the questions that the Republican presidential nominee will be asked during his interview with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson as well as the scripted responses to them. A presidential candidate will prepare for an important interview. This is both expected and reasonable.
But given that Donald Trump has been endorsed by avowed white supremacists such as David Duke, is the preferred candidate of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and is leading a nativist and racist political movement, the entire scenario is laughably disingenuous and the stuff of a skit on “Saturday Night Live” or “Chappelle’s Show.” The setup would be made only more perfect if David Chappelle’s character Clayton Bigsby, the blind black white supremacist, interviewed Donald Trump.
The New York Times has reported:His team was leaving nothing to chance.
Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things.
One of the leaked questions and answers include this gem:
As President, I must serve all Americans without regard to race, ethnicity or any other qualification. I must approach my task with the utmost wisdom and make sure that all Americans have opportunities to achieve to their potential. If we are to Make America Great Again, we must reduce, rather than highlight, issues of race in this country.
Apparently, Trump, like other conservatives, did not take Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun’s wisdom to heart when he said, “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”
In all, Trump’s prepared answers are the same tired, ineffective and tedious talking points that have been recycled by the Republican Party in its black “outreach” campaigns since at least the days of leaders like Ronald Reagan and likely back as far as Richard Nixon’s time. The policies described have been proved ineffective in improving the economic and political fortunes of black and brown communities.
Moreover, the “color blind,” free market, neoliberal, “small government” policies advocated by Trump and the Republican Party are in many ways responsible for the institutional and systemic inequalities that they purport to correct. As I wrote in an earlier piece, African-American voters are not stupid, bamboozled, dumb or unsophisticated: They have chosen to reject the poison pill offered by a Republican Party that is racist and hostile toward people of color.
If Trump was actually serious about wanting to win over African-American voters he would answer the following questions during his interview with Bishop Jackson on the Impact Network.
1. Mr. Trump, you were one of the first people to suggest that Barack Obama, the United States’ first black president, was not born in the United States and is thus ineligible to hold the country’s highest elected office. Many black Americans perceive this to be profoundly racist and insulting to Obama, the person, and African-Americans, more generally. How would you respond to those concerns?
2. Mr. Trump, you helped to manage apartment buildings in New York City that as a matter of policy did not renting to African-Americans and other people of color. Your father’s company, for which you served as an executive and manager, settled a civil rights lawsuit in 1975. Please address this matter.
3. Mr. Trump, your father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927. Can you share some more information about this incident?
4. Mr. Trump, you have called the Black Lives Matter movement dangerous and described its members as thugs who are a threat to the police and public safety. You have even gone so far as to personally threaten Black Lives Matter protesters with physical violence. How would you address the Black Lives Matter movement’s concerns about police brutality? What would say to the large number of African-Americans who support the Black Lives Matter Movement?
5. Mr. Trump, in a recent speech you said that you feel that police in places like Chicago are afraid to do their jobs and have been acting with restraint in the country’s inner city communities. Chicago’s police have been involved in numerous high-profile killings of unarmed African-Americans. Chicago police were even operating a “black site” where they tortured and abused people to coerce confessions and obtain other information from them. The Chicago police department was also described in a recent internal report as having “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.” Do you still believe that police in cities like Chicago are acting with “restraint” in how they treat African-Americans and other people of color?
This weekend with prepared answers already memorized, Trump takes his fake black outreach program on the road.Trump has canned responses for his talk with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Here are the questions he needs to be asked
Bishop Wayne T. Jackson; Donald Trump (Credit: MSNBC/AP/Chris Carlson/Photo montage by Salon)
Donald Trump began his faux outreach campaign to African-American voters by calling them uneducated unemployed losers whose lives are a living hell. Beginning this weekend, the second stage of Trump’s outreach campaign to African-American voters will reportedly consist of meetings at a select group of black churches, a tour of inner-city communities like Detroit and an interview on the Impact Network.
The New York Times has obtained a leaked copy of the questions that the Republican presidential nominee will be asked during his interview with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson as well as the scripted responses to them. A presidential candidate will prepare for an important interview. This is both expected and reasonable.
But given that Donald Trump has been endorsed by avowed white supremacists such as David Duke, is the preferred candidate of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and is leading a nativist and racist political movement, the entire scenario is laughably disingenuous and the stuff of a skit on “Saturday Night Live” or “Chappelle’s Show.” The setup would be made only more perfect if David Chappelle’s character Clayton Bigsby, the blind black white supremacist, interviewed Donald Trump.
The New York Times has reported:His team was leaving nothing to chance.
Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things.
One of the leaked questions and answers include this gem:
As President, I must serve all Americans without regard to race, ethnicity or any other qualification. I must approach my task with the utmost wisdom and make sure that all Americans have opportunities to achieve to their potential. If we are to Make America Great Again, we must reduce, rather than highlight, issues of race in this country.
Apparently, Trump, like other conservatives, did not take Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun’s wisdom to heart when he said, “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”
In all, Trump’s prepared answers are the same tired, ineffective and tedious talking points that have been recycled by the Republican Party in its black “outreach” campaigns since at least the days of leaders like Ronald Reagan and likely back as far as Richard Nixon’s time. The policies described have been proved ineffective in improving the economic and political fortunes of black and brown communities.
Moreover, the “color blind,” free market, neoliberal, “small government” policies advocated by Trump and the Republican Party are in many ways responsible for the institutional and systemic inequalities that they purport to correct. As I wrote in an earlier piece, African-American voters are not stupid, bamboozled, dumb or unsophisticated: They have chosen to reject the poison pill offered by a Republican Party that is racist and hostile toward people of color.
If Trump was actually serious about wanting to win over African-American voters he would answer the following questions during his interview with Bishop Jackson on the Impact Network.
1. Mr. Trump, you were one of the first people to suggest that Barack Obama, the United States’ first black president, was not born in the United States and is thus ineligible to hold the country’s highest elected office. Many black Americans perceive this to be profoundly racist and insulting to Obama, the person, and African-Americans, more generally. How would you respond to those concerns?
2. Mr. Trump, you helped to manage apartment buildings in New York City that as a matter of policy did not renting to African-Americans and other people of color. Your father’s company, for which you served as an executive and manager, settled a civil rights lawsuit in 1975. Please address this matter.
3. Mr. Trump, your father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927. Can you share some more information about this incident?
4. Mr. Trump, you have called the Black Lives Matter movement dangerous and described its members as thugs who are a threat to the police and public safety. You have even gone so far as to personally threaten Black Lives Matter protesters with physical violence. How would you address the Black Lives Matter movement’s concerns about police brutality? What would say to the large number of African-Americans who support the Black Lives Matter Movement?
5. Mr. Trump, in a recent speech you said that you feel that police in places like Chicago are afraid to do their jobs and have been acting with restraint in the country’s inner city communities. Chicago’s police have been involved in numerous high-profile killings of unarmed African-Americans. Chicago police were even operating a “black site” where they tortured and abused people to coerce confessions and obtain other information from them. The Chicago police department was also described in a recent internal report as having “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.” Do you still believe that police in cities like Chicago are acting with “restraint” in how they treat African-Americans and other people of color?
Putting lives in danger: Trump’s vile Phoenix speech was terrifying — and the result could be tragic
In Phoenix, Trump gave one of the most violent, vicious and repugnant speeches in modern U.S. political history by Chauncey Devga and The Atlantic Magazine (Republished with Permission from Both)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)(Credit: AP)
The American corporate news media owes the world an apology. Donald Trump — a man whose politics have more in common with the loudmouth drunk at the local tavern who rages aloud about “those people” and “minorities” — is one step away from becoming the president of the United States. Without a platform Donald Trump is but a nuisance and pitiful curiosity. By giving him $3 billion in free advertising, the American corporate news media transformed Donald Trump into a demagogue.
Since he won the Republican presidential nomination, the American corporate news media has desperately tried to normalize Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. To that end, the cable news networks have devoted many hours of coverage to Trump’s “pivot” back to the “mainstream” and how he would inevitably have to moderate his voice in order to win over “middle America” and the “average voter.”
Last week the chattering classes and “smart people” were excited about Trump’s promise to launch an “outreach” campaign to African-Americans and Latinos. On Wednesday Donald Trump traveled to Mexico to meet with President Peña Nieto. Voices in the American corporate news media then fawned over Trump. The trip allowed him to look “presidential.” He was “softening” his positions on illegal immigration. The great “pivot” had finally arrived. Trump could now be put into the familiar and comfortable “horse race” model of American campaigns and elections; he was now a “normal” presidential candidate.
Trump, the consummate showman, carnival barker and professional wrestling villain would swerve the American corporate news media once again. Several hours after returning from Mexico to a rabid crowd of supporters in Phoenix, he would give one of the most violent, vicious, vile and repugnant speeches in modern American political history. It was the political equivalent of watching a toilet or cesspool overflow, where instead of running away in disgust, Trump’s supplicants enthusiastically wallowed and frolicked in the waste.
