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The Trump Campaign Peaked Too Soon (Opinion)
MSN ^ | July 2024 | Elliot Ackerman

Posted on 07/21/2024 12:33:10 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

With the end of their convention, the Republican Party and Donald Trump have reached what in military theory is called the “culminating point.” “The culminating point of victory,” according to the Modern War Institute at West Point, “is the threshold when military advantages peak and then rapidly turn into disadvantages.”

As an infantryman, I was taught that the culminating point is a paradox; it’s a moment of maximum vulnerability at a time when you believe you are at maximum strength. Let’s say your platoon has just taken a hill. Exhausted and jubilant, you’ve achieved your objective. Your troops have sent the defeated enemy fleeing down its reverse slope. You stand triumphant atop that hill. Psychologically, you’re vulnerable to believing two things: that your victory is complete and that your enemy no longer poses a meaningful threat. The temptation then becomes to destroy the last of your enemy, to take more ground. If you do this, if you don’t recognize your culminating point, if you try to remain on the offensive too long instead of setting up a good defense, you become dangerously exposed to a counterattack by a regrouped enemy.

…To win, Democrats must regroup and counterattack.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: History; Humor; Military/Veterans; Politics; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: americaelects; biden; bushbot; concerntroll; condoleezzaprotege; dnc; dncselects; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; elliotackerman; garbagepost; harris; mediawingofthednc; pantytwister; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; peaked; presstitutes; smearmachine; stfu; tds; theatlantic; trump
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To: montag813

you really believe kammy the Ho will get more votes then the 81 million that joe did in 2020??


81 posted on 07/21/2024 2:31:34 PM PDT by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: wildcard_redneck

You betcha. Better book your room as every nut has vowed to show up, most prominently the pro-Hamas wing of the party. I dare say they’ve been … stimulated…. By the pro-Israel plank of the platform

And listen, do we really need a straight white guy on the ticket, like Newsom or Beshear? I hope the much oppressed LGBTQRT!++ faction come to realize this might be their big chance


82 posted on 07/21/2024 2:32:16 PM PDT by j.havenfarm (23 years on Free Republic, 12/10/23! More than 8,000 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Republicans can keep the peak alive only by hitting their many issues hard.

Name calling and personal attacks would give female swing voters an excuse to stay with the Democrats.

Playing defense about abortion, IVF, Project 2025, or anything else would not mollify the Democrats.


83 posted on 07/21/2024 2:33:12 PM PDT by Socon-Econ (adi)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I imagine this guy was also clutching his pearls before the Trump/Biden debate because “he has nothing to gain and everything to lose, it’s a huge unforced error”, etc.


84 posted on 07/21/2024 2:40:14 PM PDT by mbrfl
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To: All

The Democratic Party convention is likely to be a disaster for the Democrats. Unless they’re miraculously able to achieve some unity and consensus for the convention, it’s going to be a week of angry Democrats airing their dirty laundry for all to see. They’ll be like a pack of dogs fighting each other to determine their new leader. It will be Democrats doing what they do, unfiltered. And whoever comes out on top will be despised by the side that lost.


85 posted on 07/21/2024 2:51:12 PM PDT by mbrfl
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To: Republican Wildcat
Them agreeing to schedule that debate prior to the nomination may have been deliberate in order to set the stage for Biden to be pushed out prior. . .

I think you're over-thinking this. Biden had never done anything near that badly in debates or pressers. There's no way they knew he was the vegetable he had become--otherwise they would never have agreed to that debate. He had gone from occasional word salad to standard Democratic phony in previous debates, such that it would have been foolish to make big changes before the recent catastrophe--which obviously is what got them on the assassination project.

86 posted on 07/21/2024 2:59:16 PM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

First of all, the word is “piqued.”

Second, you are thinking back in the old days of political races. These rules do not apply. This is a movement, a turning....nothing from yesteryear applies.


87 posted on 07/21/2024 3:19:28 PM PDT by JudyinCanada
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To: TexasFreeper2009
"Last man standing" should be payback enough — for now.

88 posted on 07/21/2024 3:37:30 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Opinion = Non Fact


89 posted on 07/21/2024 3:59:03 PM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Indy Pendance

From MSN?

IOW, they are more worried than we realized.


90 posted on 07/21/2024 4:09:51 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: CrazyCatChick

No, it’s a Christopher Wray thing- testified to Congress. Biden’s pals the Chi-coms through their Cartel partners.


91 posted on 07/21/2024 4:11:21 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

What a moron. I think President Trump is on an upward trajectory toward 360 electoral votes and a pop vote win.


92 posted on 07/21/2024 4:49:25 PM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually." Jimi Hendrix)
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To: Luke21
Yeah. I’m going to listen to some commie squid named Elliott Zuckerman or Ackerman or whatever. Lets all laugh.

Or not.

He referred to West Point and immediately stated he was an infantryman, it didn't sound right so I did a quick, superficial check of his credentials.

No mention of WP in his bio, but it appears he is a former CPT USMC, MARSOC, CIA tactical officer, and pulled 5 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, etc.

Not entirely dipositive, but he puts a lot on the table. What do you have?

93 posted on 07/21/2024 5:20:29 PM PDT by frog in a pot (If a state doesn't require U.S. citizenship of fed voters, it will be ignoring existing fed law. )
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To: PA Presbyterian

Are you referencing Mad mo Maxine Waters?


94 posted on 07/21/2024 5:48:34 PM PDT by 82nd Bragger (Count to four except when in a helicopter)
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To: frog in a pot

“What do you have?”

An opinion, just like you, that will be proven right or wrong. I think he’s a typical MSM stooge writing for an MSM publication. I don’t need to justify having an opinion to publish here. You are just some wise guy on a board, just like me. And if I’m right and Trump doesn’t “peak too soon” in stoogespeak, I’ll never hear from your sorry butt again.


95 posted on 07/22/2024 1:57:31 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: Luke21
I don’t need to justify having an opinion to publish here.

No one said you have to justify your opinion, but it sounds like that is the end of your best argument. In any event, if you want your opinion to be taken seriously you ought to provide support to substantiate it.

You will note I placed facts of record on the table, not opinion. 

(I did not get too far into the article to find myself disagreeing with the author, and will go back and finish reading it, but he definitely has the street creds to make the argument.)

And, since you do not know me and are not facing me eye to eye, most readers will, IMO, find your response in polite terms is just whining and bluster.

96 posted on 07/22/2024 6:46:52 PM PDT by frog in a pot (If a state doesn't require U.S. citizenship of fed voters, it will be ignoring existing fed law. )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Who says he’s done peaking? LOL


97 posted on 07/22/2024 6:54:36 PM PDT by Darth Gill
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To: Darth Gill

devil’s advocate.


98 posted on 07/22/2024 7:46:15 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: Rockingham; Luke21
...the obvious culminating point of a political campaign is the close of voting on election day. It is never anything else.

Bingo!

It appears the author was one hell of an experienced and effective battlefield commander, and I kept hoping for the best while reading his article.

As you suggest, the author in his analysis confuses tactical considerations with strategic goals - he probably should have gone to West Point instead of Tufts. Readers could easily conclude early on he was urging Trump to quit campaigning.

Then to compound the error, he gratuitously and unnecessarily throws Vance under the bus just to support his misunderstanding.

99 posted on 07/23/2024 5:11:50 PM PDT by frog in a pot (If a state doesn't require U.S. citizenship of fed voters, it will be ignoring existing fed law. )
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To: frog in a pot

I am sure that the author knows his piece was nonsense. I suspect that it was written to satisfy an itch, or at someone’s urging, or to earn an incentive.


100 posted on 07/24/2024 4:59:04 PM PDT by Rockingham
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