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Friday, May 13. 2016

Mr. Trump Goes to Washington

I think Peggy Noonan gets it:



In an act of determined denial, Washington Republicans and conservatives continue to see and describe Mr. Trump’s nomination as the triumph of a celebrity in a culture that worships celebrity, the victory of a vulgarian in a vulgar age, the living excrescence of our shallow values and lowered standards. Also, he’s tapped into the public’s rage.


He is all of those things. But he is more, and Washington is determined to ignore the more. He understood, either intuitively or after study, that the Republican base was changing or open to change, and would expand if the party changed some policies. He declared those policies changed. And he won. ..



I do not think Trump is a vulgarian. I think he plays one on TV. It is his shtick. He is a shock to the system, to same-old same-old in both parties. He will be elected decisively. The primary voters knew what they were doing.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 18:16 | Comments (20) | Trackbacks (0)

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All Trump did was call out the establishment on both sides for its incompetence. And we can all see the nerve has been struck.
#1 D on 2016-05-13 19:09 (Reply)
Trump is smart, maybe brilliant. His style, IMHO, is a typical New York confrontational, take no crap attitude that doesn't come across very well for a lot of people. I cannot predict how he will do as a president if he is elected but honestly I don't see how it could be worse than Obama or worse than Hillary would be. If Trump is the candidate I will vote for him and hope for the best. Between now and November I fully expect both sides to take pot shots and cheap shots at Trump and I have no doubt we will see dirty tricks the likes of which we have never seen before in American politics. At this point I don't car if they discover bodies buried in his backyard I will vote for Trump because I can't vote for Hillary and I won't vote for Bernie. I sincerely hope that Republicans, conservatives and independents come together and elect the only candidate that isn't crazy or a unindicted felon because the world grows more dangerous everyday and the economy is in the dumper and getting worse. We are in deep shit and Trump may not be the messiah but he is the only sane and capable person still running so we better get behind him.
#2 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-05-13 19:23 (Reply)
I've been saying this over at Chicagoboyz since last fall.

I agree completely.
#2.1 Mike K (Link) on 2016-05-15 10:40 (Reply)
Except that the bum (Trump, I mean, not the other bums) doesn't know anything. He has no knowledge of law and history and procedure. He doesn't know anything.
#2.2 Alan (Link) on 2016-05-15 11:30 (Reply)
Thou shalt not put It Couldn't Be Worse to the test.

Or, as the Gods of the Copybook Headings say, "better the devil you know."

I'm old and wise enough to remember people said Jimmy Carter "couldn't be worse", that Bill Clinton "couldn't be worse", and that Obama "couldn't be worse". Each time they were wrong, horribly wrong. Yet in 2016 once again "the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire".
#2.3 Micha Elyi on 2016-05-15 22:44 (Reply)
What's amazing is now, literally every day, Obama digs the hole deeper for the Democrats.
#3 Jim on 2016-05-13 19:36 (Reply)
You underestimate the Trump's threat to the powerful wealthy Republicans (Koch, Romney et al). They are threatened by the large popular turnout for Trump and therefore loss of their oligarchy and power.
I am concerned that they would prefer losing the presidency to losing ultimate power by opening the Republican party.

They will spend heavily to defeat him. Koch alluded to his willingness to support Clinton.
#4 ns on 2016-05-14 00:32 (Reply)
Charles Koch is about as likely to support Hillary as I am. He's made clear that he intends to spend little or nothing on the presidential election this cycle, but will focus on state and local raced and Congress. He's earned his billions through good, down to earth internal business processes and relentless focus on providing value to his customers. He will lose his "oligarchy" when someone out-competes him.

Maybe some heavy hitters simply disagree with Trump's policies, and think he is not temperamentally suited to be Commander in Chief. Some values they hold appear to be threatened, not their social or economic status, which they are well capable of defending in any case.
#4.1 Ed on 2016-05-14 21:34 (Reply)
Trump is a powerful wealthy lifelong liberal democrat . The only threat he will crush is anyone, like Cruz, who wants to reduce the size and power of the federal government, and that includes supreme court picks too . The idea that a guy who loves eminent domain, wants to reform the 1st amendment so no one can criticize him and liked the assault weapons ban is going to fight the democrats (who he has contributed to all his life) for another Scalia is ludicrous. Trump has just said all his policies are just suggestions he isn't going to fight for any of them. The guy is just another huckster and the only person who will profit from his administration is Donnie and his cronies. Maybe after a trade war and depression the rubes will learn, but I doubt it .
#4.2 mrburns (Link) on 2016-05-15 10:15 (Reply)
Always remember Trump is a wheeler-dealer. Everything he says is his opening offer, subject to negotiation. If he can negotiate down and still walk off with 51% of the table, he'll make the deal. That mindset should serve him well in dealing with the Congress and foreign governments. The thing that worries me is whether or not he wants to clip the wings of the entrenched federal bureaucracy, a thankless task with few short term rewards. He appears to have the chutzpah for it, but whether or not he thinks it needs doing is vague at this point.
#5 BillH on 2016-05-14 09:28 (Reply)
With Boehner, Ryan and McConnell walking from the table with 0%, Trump getting 51% will seem like a dream.
#5.1 Nadadhimmi on 2016-05-15 11:24 (Reply)
it is amazing how the GOPe refuses to acknowledge that their duplicity created Donald trump. if mitch mc Connell, john Boehner, paul ryan, Lindsey graham, et.al. kept the campaign promises they made in 2010, 2012, and 2014 there never would have been a Donald trump. ever hear a republican talk about repealing Obamacare since they took over congress? ever member of the GOPe needs a Donald trump to run against them. maybe we will get a government that cares just a smidgen about the will of the people.
#6 salg (Link) on 2016-05-15 04:51 (Reply)
You do realize congress DID repeal Obamacare right? Its just that Obama vetoed it and there aren't enough votes in the Senate to override the veto.
#6.1 Randy on 2016-05-16 13:11 (Reply)
Trump is a sickening vulgarian, he debases America. As far as Noonan getting it, this is the same idiot who voted for Obama.

I don't care much about the GOP, but I do care about the Constitution and liberty. Trump clearly cares about neither.
#7 ChristopherA on 2016-05-15 07:27 (Reply)
Bingo. But today's Americans care more about personal comfort and money than they do about either the Constitution or liberty. They think Trump is going to raise their wages and increase their entitlements. We're now a South American banana republic, where rival members of an oligarchy divide into right wing and left wing factions and mobilize their respective followers to fight over resources, especially control of government money. Nobody wants a small government anymore -- the Constitution or liberty; they just want stuff.
#7.1 David McKissack on 2016-05-15 07:58 (Reply)
Oh, he's pretty vulgar. But he's also smart, and he genuinely loves America, and he's done some good and successful things in his life. He's extremely competent and energetic.

Nobody in their right mind wants Hillary Clinton anywhere near the Oval Office. She is a guaranteed global disaster. She is ignorant, and extremely incompetent. She is corrupt to the core. She is brutally, viciously venal.

I will hold my nose and vote for Trump, no matter his faults.
#8 Fred on 2016-05-15 08:40 (Reply)
to bypass paywall, google the title and then click article
#9 Gabriel Black on 2016-05-15 08:51 (Reply)
If/when Trump is elected, he'll have accomplished the biggest corporate hostile takeover of all time. This notion, undoubtedly, is what terrifies the Beltway Establishment, Trump will be essentially beholden to no one and, in the grand tradition of corporate takeovers, will undoubtedly bring in his own people, fire the "dead wood" when possible, and exile those he can't fire to stimulating desk jobs in North Dakota and Oklahoma.

May all of the above come to pass. And I'm writing this as a guy who voted for Cruz in the primary.
#10 MarkJ on 2016-05-15 09:15 (Reply)
People have completely lost their minds. The delusions of what Trump will do (or even can do) are more fantastic than beliefs in Unicorns who create magic fairy dust with the essence of their strawberry flatulence. If he wins (and lets hope he does because President Hillary is a nightmare), the same dishonest incompetents who kill vets will remain in the bureaucracy at that VA. The same bureaucrats will keep screwing up the EPA. The same Republicans (this year's Emmanuel Goldsteins in the fevered conspiracy ravings of the Trump cult) will be in the House and Senate. The same judges will be in the federal judiciary.

And The Donald will continue to be the same incompetent, ignorant asshole. He will continue to believe that he is smart and everyone who disagrees with him is an idiot. He will continue to remain ignorant. He will continue to be a total failure when it comes to building a competent leadership team -- just as he has his whole life.

Look at his record. Talk to people who have actually been in business with him. Talk to his fellow owners in the USFL. Talk to the bankers who had to bail his butt out when he drove his business "empire" into the toilet.

And talk to people who have actually worked in the White House as republicans about how much change can be made in the liberals who dominate the bureaucracy decade after decade.

The delusions are out of control.
#11 stan on 2016-05-15 10:58 (Reply)
And Noonan has no clue. She writes nice sentences. Her analysis has always been on par with hernendorsement of Dan Rather's integrity and her judgment of Obama's qualifications for president. She's a joke.

The GOP is not shattering. How freaking stupid. Just as it wasn't dead after 1976. Given that Peggy worked for the Gipper who won the next election after the GOP was declared dead. one would hope she'd have a little sense of history.
#12 stan on 2016-05-15 11:05 (Reply)

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