Posted on 03/07/2016 5:24:19 AM PST by shortstop
It's kind of like the barking dog that ran headlong into the back end of a stopped car:
Now that you've caught it, what are you going to do with it?
That's my question for Donald Trump.
Now that you've caught it, what are you doing to do with it?
Now that you seem to have all but secured the Republican nomination for president, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to assure the American people that you are serious about the job, and that you have a specific and substantive plan for moving the country forward?
How do you show the people of the world that you are worthy of being president of the United States?
How do you lay aside the showmanship of the campaign, and take up the mantle of respectability that the office and the enormity of the task demand?
The Detroit debate was a train wreck. It left those who watched it with an odd uneasiness in their stomachs, some slight whiff of panic that made them fear the primary campaign might have gone horribly wrong. After seven years of Obama, built upon a shaky foundation of the irresponsible years before, America is in peril and half of its people are in a funk. Things are bad, and this election has to count. This is when we snatch the Republic back from the edge of a precipice.
So this election is big.
And as you shouted over Rubio, and boasted of the size of your schlong, a fear arose that you might not be big enough for the task. As the Fox moderators asked you the exact same question CNN moderators had asked you before, and you gave the same demonstrably ridiculous answer, a chill wind blew through the Trump Train.
At least it did where I sit.
When you gave the same simplistic lines you had given at the nine previous debates you've participated in, you raised doubts that you may not actually have any better answer. We know it's going to be great, we know we're going to start winning, but how. Specifically. What is your plan? In any area. Pick one.
A president and his platform have to have substance and specifics, and seriousness. You don't always have to be the buttoned-down guy most politicians are, but you do have to show that it's in your repertoire. You've shown that you are a good salesman, but you've not shown that you have a good product. There is no doubt you can be elected, there is grave doubt that you can serve.
And there is doubt that you have the temperament for the job.
As Rubio melted down at the debate, for example, an opportunity arose for you to be the bigger man and defuse the awkward confrontation. It would have been a display of maturity and reasonableness, and of your supposed negotiation skills, but you responded to his immaturity with your own, and the spiral into disgrace continued.
Presidents don't do that.
Presidents have to be worthy to stand on the tarmac at Dover.
Presidents have to be worthy to lay a wreath at Arlington.
Presidents have to have a personal goodness that allows them to be able to show love to all, and keep commitments to all, and to stand as a personal representative of the Republic, its flag and its people.
The hands of a president one day may have to fasten the Medal of Honor around a hero's neck – those hands should not have been held up to demonstrate the size of a penis.
A president needs the ability to be presidential; Trump has not yet demonstrated that ability.
And now is the time.
As the full-bore sweep of big-state primaries bears down on us, as the math becomes more and more undeniable, Donald Trump needs to prove that this is about us, not him. He must show that this isn't some outgrowth of his own massive ego, but is a genuine commitment to saving a nation that has enriched him and been home to us.
He needs to start acting like a grown up.
He needs to genuinely reach out to others by respecting them and speaking to and about them courteously.
He needs to take his platform – which fits nicely on a hat – and expound upon it with specificity and credibility.
He needs to show that if nominated and elected – statistical likelihoods – that he can actually serve.
And he needs to do it now.
Donald Trump is on track to secure the presidency.
And he needs to tell us what he's going to do with it.
Or a bunch of us on the Trump Train are going to jump off before it's too late.
Have you ever heard Trump enunciate anything articulately, succinctly, or to the point where anyone can understand?
The democrats I know (far lefties) hated Trump 6 months ago without knowing anything about him and still hate him without having learning anything about his agenda.
Of course if you are able to finish your thoughts in 60 or 30 seconds, then you open yourself up to "not having details" and not fully answering the question.
Does anybody remember the Kennedy/Nixon debates in 1960? I'm too young to remember but I believe they had sufficient time to answer questions. In 1858, the Lincoln/Douglas debates went on for hours. Of course, people had longer attention spans then and I believe whiskey was provided for the attendees.
True dat.
Kasich in his time has morphed into Mr. Milquetoast Ohio Liberal Republican. I almost expect to see him show up somewhere wearing a Jimmy Carter cardigan, if he hasn't already.
Six months ago I was supporting Cruz but then I held him up to a little scrutiny and got this feeling like I had picked up the wrong package of pork chops at the meat counter.
Same goes for Dondi, for the same reason.
Oh, and look who else has popped up like a recurring zit, two days after Super Tuesday so he'd know who to backstab like the backstabbing son of a bitch he really is... and he's on our team...
Really, the Republican bench we had heard so much about had a lot of numbers but few gamers. I'm almost tempted to wonder what the deal was with Scott Walker. Time to go with what we got, and hope the dude brings his best.
Oh, and then unify and heal after the nomination is secure, but first clean out the slime and corruption and prune away the deadwood. It's a target-rich environment, as they say.
You are a real piece of work. How much do the anti-American globalists pay you to trash an American patriot day after day?
What we see is what we’d get, and it ain’t pretty.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
You keep telling yourself the sky is green and that too will be true in your mind.
That belt thing was pathological...
He’s right.
Sorry, there’s nothing new or unusual about this election. Maybe members of the uniparty, who have the same goals in mind (albeit usually for different reasons), have recently behaved in a more civil manner, but nastiness among politicians goes all the way back to the founding fathers; witness the very public hatred Jefferson and Adams carried for one another until their deaths.
This quote in particular caught my eye: “How do you show the people of the world that you are worthy of being president of the United States?” It is not up to the “people of the world” to determine the suitability of any candidate for president of the United States - at least not yet.
Do you have anything to back up that disagreement? I had high hopes for him but I'm seeing a phony here. Not to mention the whole Canada thing won't go away if he's nominated. I detect a lot of insincerity with him. I guess I could accept him if he's nominated but I'd rather watch a campaign about attacking Clinton's Benghazi, emails, husband's rapes etc., rather than having him play defense over his Canadian citizenship.
Little Marco’s rants show that he is easily distracted by irrelevancies.
Yep.
There is a part of me that wants to agree with the author, but I'm certain that both McCain and Romney lost because of being 'nice'. GW Bush nearly lost for the same reason both times.
Trump has taken to the gutter against every other candidate in the republican primary and he's been beating them.
But the real difference between Trump and the others is that THEY also went to the gutter. They just did it through surrogates, through their PACs, and only on the debate stage according the rules of decorum established by losers.
Trump takes it to them in public. And they are having a cow.
Anyone who doubts that Romney viciously attacked conservatives when not on stage is fooling themselves. But he was a little kitten when he got in the general election.
WHO will attack Hillary Clinton on stage? Who will call her an enabler of perverts, a criminal, the killer of those killed by her treasonous handling of classified information, a liar to the families of the deceased?
WHO will attack her as she should be attacked...head on, in her face, and with truly righteous indignation?
I think there's only one candidate who will play in the gutter the way democrats play in the gutter.
That's Trump.
And any know nothing who wants to know about the details of his proposals from healthcare to taxes can go to Trump.com and read ALL about them in minute detail.
Cruz hasn’t proven he’s eligible to be president. Until then he’s a non-starter.
When Presidential candidates act like Kings and Queens, we will have our monarchy....
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go and fly a kite.
I made the same point as this article in a comment I made in a thread yesterday. I was taken to task by a vocal Trump supporter who said that it was my opinion and I shouldn’t project onto others who support his campaign.
Unless it’s completely against his character (which it may be), Trump needs to tone down the childish reactions to criticism and respond appropriately to taunts by others designed to elicit the very reactions descibed above.
Each time he gets a day or two into being statesman like he loses it again. Either he still does not get the Geneva convention or is just saying he will change the laws for what? He can’t change the Geneva convention. One would think his supporters would question his turn to supporting high tech H1B visas, but apparently not, he has modified all of his positions since the campaign started.
He has been a crony capitalist his entire life. He will just be on the other side if elected.
I still haven’t found a reason to trust anything he says.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.