I’ll be uncharacteristically brief. Watching the prime time GOP candidates mob debate, I think Donald Trump may have nicked an astounding number of rationalizations on the list that he really seems to think are justifications. (Screwing over his investors and lenders by declaring bankruptcy four times was OK because lots of successful people do it(#1), and because those he screwed aren’t nice people (#2), he said: the two classics in the span of 20 seconds.) When I see the transcript, I’ll try to get an accurate count.
The man is awful. What an embarrassment to the party and the nation.
The interesting news is that Trump tried two new ones. When asked by Megyn Kelly about his habit of calling women ugly names (“fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals”), he proposed the “It’s only Rosie O’Donnell” rationalization, which apparently stands for the proposition that as long as you’re only unethical to Rosie, you’re not doing anything wrong. I consider Rosie a blot on the national scene, but this idiotic even by rationalization standards.
REJECTED
Then he offered this: “I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness.” Now that’s really stupid. At first I thought this was a version of 31. The Troublesome Luxury: “Ethics is a luxury we can’t afford right now.” But Trump isn’t saying that. What he’s saying is that it’s too much trouble and takes too much time to be civil (calling a woman a pig isn’t politically incorrect, it’s boorish, mean and rude), and that’s even dumber than his first rejected rationalization.
Being civil, like being ethical, doesn’t take time. It takes character. It takes an understanding that being ethical is a priority, not an afterthought.
Ethics Alarms 
This jackass is going to get Hillary elected.
Yep.
Almost seems intentional.
And YET he is 15 points ahead of any of the other GOP contenders. People LIKE him, they REALLY LIKE him! (grumble, grumble)
He’s a horrible example of the result of people wanting some “BIG MAN” to just get out there and fix things for them.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
They like him, because he is bold about the topics that right wingers are right about, but he has a way of making it just offensive sounding enough. Then he has a way of pushing topics out that probably don’t need to be at the forefront in an extremely offensive manner just enough to attach them to the right wing brand.
Humble Talent discussed it very well, I don’t recall the thread.
That was quite a while ago, and I stand by it. Trump acts like a lightning rod to every bad republican policy and puts out good policy in the worst possible light. It’s so consistent…. Remember the Obama birth certificate fiasco? I think Occam’s razor might suggest it’s deliberate. And if the position is that it’s deliberate, there are two possibilities: That 1) He feels these positions will cause him to succeed financially, even at the detriment of the Republican brand. Or 2) He’s a democratic stalking horse, and is trying to sink the GOP. He’s not in this to win, some of his answers yesterday prove that.
I know it seems like a conspiracy theory… But the thing is that I don’t think that Trump is as retarded as the persona he projects… He’s a self made man in business. And America hates a loser. When he loses, and everyone knows he will, I don’t see an avenue for him to make more money than he’s spending on his campaign and has lost from businesses fleeing his policy stances.
As to why he’s popular, why when he says things that would have the traditional politician hiding under a rock for the next decade and gets a bump: He’s different. People are sick of slimy career politicians. He’s an asshole, but he projects an honest asshole. More: He’s got name recognition…. He’s probably one of the top ten most famous Americans, and the media (and this might not even be hyperbole) spends half it’s political coverage time on Trump. And these are polls, not votes… If I were a betting man (and I am) my money is on the first actual primary vote differs from the polls by more than 10%.
He is out front because when the pollsters call people and ask “Who do you think the leading Republican candidate for President is?” the only one they have heard about in the news is Trump.
Absolutely! Polls are garbage. I should have made that point.
Oh well, Donald will be Donald so I don’t think being accused of being unethical will bother him a bit. I noted after the debate was over that the people in the focus group were largely annoyed and disgusted with him. Let’s just hope that the Donald will man up and leave the race to serious Republican candidates. Some I don’t think he will.
On Drudge, over 50% thought he won the debate. One can only think he won the debate if you would think Firpo beat Dempsey. If I were Drudge, I would conclude that my life’s work was a failure, since I was apparently being read primarily by mental defectives.
Take some representative comments on Drudge, add in some boastful asides like ‘and it was a very expensive lunch’ or ‘it was a nice car, very classy’ and you could turn it into the average trump comment so of course they like him over there.
There’s a reason Stephen King called him the ragin ID of the Republican Party.
Hey, don’t sell yourself short, Jack. We really could all be mental defectives here.
–Dwayne
Excellent point.
And Dwayne, it was so nice to finally meet you face to face at the penultimate performance of The American Century Theater, which ended its 20 year sag last night. Thank you (and your wife) for being part of the last round-up.
The pleasure was all mine, and the show was–again–FANTASTIC. We even got to chat with (and congratulate) a few of the cast members after the show. One of them even gave us both a hug when he learned that we had come back to see it a second time.
I’m sorry to see T.A.C.T. shut off the lights, but there’s no denying that it went out with a bang. You all have good reason to be proud.
–Dwayne
He really said his lenders were bad people and deserved to be stiffed in bankruptcy court? Wow. I’m not sure he cares about lenders though. I’ve heard he doesn’t actually do deals any more. He simply lends “Trump” to people doing deals for a flat fee. At least that was the story on a “Trump” project proposed in Phoenix a few years back. He was only in for a $500K fee. The project never eventuated.
I very, very seriously doubt he’s worth anywhere near a thousand million dollars. No way. I hope someone can pull back the curtain so we can see the real financial condition of this guy who’s despised by all his siblings because he single-handedly blew through their father’s massive estate.
In a society where stuff is everthing, winning is almost everything, and quarterly rersults determine share price ethics is just an afterthought!
I thought Bush won the debate last night. Christie and Rand performed well too. Trump held his own — even if he is unethical. I like Kasich — but he has absolutely no personality and he’s too moderate to get the nomination.
I don’t think Carson can continue, I don’t think Jindal or Kasich will continue. I kinda hope that enough people at the big kids debate drop out that Fiorina gets bumped up.
Carson did the worst last night — IMO. But, I surprisingly had a lot of Republicans on my FB feed this morning talking about how much they liked him.
I bet that Fiorina gets the VP nod.
I got the perception that Carson had nostalgic thoughts about being a surgeon halfway through the debate. But that’s me. I agree about Fiorina, I don’t know if she has the name recognition or war chest to be first name on the ticket this time around, but she sure could be second.
Noooooooooooo, not Fiorina. I will never forgive her for destroying Hewlett-Packard. She could never understand what the company did, so she just cancelled all the (profitable) stuff she didn’t understand and had them do stuff she could understand. I don’t want a president like that.
Uh… HP is still around, and is still on the top of the market. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
Here is my attempt:
My impression of Trump is that he has everyone in check and they can do nothing about it. He is free of all the political constraints that all the other politicos are beholden to, and represents nearly a perfect image of everything ugly and distorted about America. Say hello to the face of your destroyed nation. Tweak its little cheeks before it devours you.
In this sense he is more American than any one he is contending against. Corn meal, chicken grease, balls of rolled up white bread, the emblem of the complete sell-out. He also represents the incursion of the low-level, mindless idiot-citizen into all spheres, not only the political, which, sad to say, is a natural result from the form of ‘democracy’ that is touted in the US. Rah rah rah! He’s ‘your own yankee-doodle-dandy come home’ and now watch him vomit on your most precious symbols.
Our American system has produced an unthinking, one-step-above-illiterate entity that has been given a status and a power that he does not deserve but no one has the guts to slap him back down (and he knows it). He certainly didn’t earn it. But this citizen has had it told to him that he matters, that he represents civilization’s finest product, that his – stupid, uninformed, vulgar -opinion actually matters. And it does matter. What he thinks and wants, what he craves, what his opinions are as expressed on Amazon, what he will buy and what he will reject, all this renders this citizen of tremendous importance, but for all the wrong reasons. But there he is: The marvellous outcome of fifty or even a hundred years of slow cultivation.
Trump speak to them and they hear him. All the politicos know exactly what is going on. The question is: How to get him out of the picture so they can have their field back to carry on with their ridiculous games.