Posted on 01/27/2016 12:06:45 PM PST by conservativejoy
A sneak preview of what you'll hear from Cruz on Thursday night in the highly unlikely event that Trump doesn't show. You'll find all the points you'd expect in the clip below: Trump is snubbing Iowans by skipping the debate; Trump is too mercurial to be president; Trump is afraid to defend his record from Cruz; and the ever-popular "I'll debate you one-on-one anywhere" challenge thatâs never worked in all of political history. Depending on how daring Cruz wants to be, you may hear a variation on this point on Thursday night too.
Reaaaaally iffy to attack Trump for doing something for vets, but his interest in charity for them does seem to peak whenever he's pulling a debate-related stunt at the media's expense. Cruz, ever calculating, will probably avoid an attack along those lines because it's too risky. Jeb Bush, who has less to lose and who's trying to stand out as the most anti-Trump candidate in the race, might not be able to resist.
Jazz and Ed haven't left much meat on the bone of Debategate this morning but let me say three things. One: Jazz thinks Trump skipping the debate is sound strategy because it "was going to be yet another situation where he would have to stand up on center stage while the rest of the candidates took shots at him." That's true, Cruz certainly would - but the rest of the field wants Trump to win Iowa. Remember, each of them is convinced that they'll beat Trump head-to-head; they're less sure about beating Cruz. My guess is that Thursday night will involve Cruz taking shots repeatedly at Trump and the rest of the field taking shots at Cruz to try to help Trump defeat him. By boycotting, not only will Trump (supposedly) not be there to rebut Cruz's attacks, he's missing a chance to join in with the others to create the perception that the party's united against Cruz. And for the record, I don't think the debate's going to be a ratings disaster. As Jazz says, Trump will remain the story whether he's there or not; ratings will be down without him but people will still tune in to see what's being said about him. And who cares what the national ratings are anyway? Iowans will be tuning in to see the candidates' closing arguments. They're all that matters now.
Two: Ed slaps Fox for suggesting that Trump's campaign manager bears some responsibility for the death threats that Kelly allegedly received after her dust-up with Trump in August. As I read Fox's release, they weren't accusing Corey Lewandowski of encouraging threats; they were saying that Lewandowski knows from media reports that Kelly's been threatened before after a major scrape with Trump and that he's now using that as leverage to get her removed from the debate (supposedly he said he'd hate to see her have another "rough couple of days" like she did after the last one).
He may not be orchestrating harassment but he's morally culpable for exploiting the near-certain prospect of another round of it once Trump starts riling people against Kelly again. I don't think that's a nutty interpretation for Fox to have of what he meant. And frankly, I don't know why Trump fans would resist it. One of Trump's supposed core virtues is that he's ruthless with the media. If that's the ethic that governs his organization, why wouldn't his campaign manager start using other people's death threats as leverage, even if he's not behind them? Gotta be "tough," especially with the jackals in the press, right?
Three: It's fair to say that Fox News's trollish press releases goofing on Trump vis-a-vis Putin were unprofessional. I have a harder time buying the idea that that's the smoking gun that proves Kelly, Bret Baier, and Chris Wallace would have been biased against Trump on Thursday night. Outside the hard-news hour at 6 p.m., which features old-schoolers like George Will and Charles Krauthammer who regularly criticize Trump, Fox News is far more pro-Trump than anti. I put the question to Twitter last night: Apart from NBC with its "Apprentice" series, which network has done more over time to promote Trump than Fox News?
He's been doing chummy interviews with Fox & Friends, Greta, O'Reilly, and Hannity regularly for years. Kelly has never said or done anything on her show to weaken Trump as much as Hannity has done to build him up as a legitimate choice for grassroots conservatives this year. If anything, because Kelly, Baier, and Wallace are all sensitive to their image as balanced reporters on a network of right-leaning commentators, they'd probably overcompensate for this fracas on Thursday by straining to be extra "fair" to Trump. And another thing: Although Fox's statements mocking Trump were trollish even for them, the Fox PR department has been infamous among media pros for years for being snotty and vindictive.
Their nastiness to Trump isn't a sign of overweening bias; more likely, it's a sign that they were tired of him endlessly demagoging Kelly and figured that the biggest troll in American politics wouldn't go crying when they gave him a dose of his own medicine. Still unprofessional, but don't be overcome by those smelling salts when you're contemplating how mean they were to poor Donald.
Ted will be crucified by the media he’s waving at Donald.
Ted’s smart but has blind spots.
He isn’t those things, but for sake of discussion, let’s stipulate that he is.
If the only thing Trump does is build the wall and stop the illegal alien inundation, the following issues will begin to be resolved:
Jobs
Better wages for us.
Medicaid
Emergency Services
Crime
Anchor babies
Social Security
Overcrowded schools
Less traffic congestion
Fewer auto accidents
Reduced drug running
More room in our jails and prisons
Fewer new diseases.
No more need of âPress 1 for Englishâ
The most profound post for the day, month and year!
Sounds to me like those sitting a the table playing this card game, and losing their $ and a55 are requesting a new deck. The cards they are playing never worked.
Shakespeare was correct!
I’m really getting an incite into the way some minds work.
That Trump is a narcissistic, egomaniac is totally clear to anyone who has seen him interviewed in the last 35 years. No shocker there. But what is disturbing is the secondary ripple effect that he has had on so many people. I find his disease process to be laughable schtick, but so many people cling to it like flies on bull droppings. They themselves take it on and exude it. They become little sycophant minions defending every action, no matter how questionable, extorting every word he utters (or tweets) as pure genius.
Its something you see with sport fanatics. Its not enough to love their own team and give it their blind allegiance, they must also personally hate all opposing team members. They must hate the opponent’s cities of origin, the opposing fans, their colors. They feel personal insult when their team isn’t rated or a sportscaster isn’t enthralled. All calls against their team are by nature, bad calls, very, very bad calls. The umpires are against them. The enemy team is the worst team that has ever existed, yet they are such a perceived threat that they can’t stop obsessing about the upcoming game.
That is the current state of affairs with team Trump.
A debate with Cruz, Rubio, Carson, Bush, Christie, Kasich, and Paul. Zzzz. Zzzz. ZZZZzzzz.
If Ted doesn’t win, maybe Pillsbury can use a new spokesman?
“incite” ??
That's classy. I'm sure the veterans will appreciate their benefactors' virtuous, principled stand in favor of Megyn Kelly's hysterical honor.
Would Trump be all bad? Not saying he would be. Napoleon was an insufferable narcissist, but he got things done.
Maybe he'd even build the wall. Great.
He might even get Ted Cruz elected President. I gave Cruz short odds of defeating the GOPe and I think that without Trump in the race, he might have already been taken out by a very well funded, multi-axis attack. Trump has given Cruz the time and room to get a message out.
I'm totally open to talking tactics about how to use Trump if he's the only blunt tool available, but I have absolutely no delusions that Trump cares about anyone other than Trump.
Have the Trump supporters gone so all in that they can’t objectively evaluate campaign strategy anymore?
This thread is hilarious. Cruz must be desperate. It’s a bad move. Etc. etc.
So, it’s brilliant of Trump to bring up the birther issue because it might change the minds of just a few percentage of voters in a close race.
But. Setting the discussion for Iowans to ask themselves if Trump not showing is disrespecting their vote - and mind you, these are voters that pride themselves on candidates showing up - because it might spark a reaction in a few percentage of voters - well that’s a horrible strategy and reeks of desperation.
Really?!?
You don’t have to like or support a political campaign to recognize basic political strategy.
All the name calling here, on both sides, aren’t changing hearts and minds. It just make us all look silly.
“Next breath theyâre attacking Ted Cruz. Why bother if heâs no threat.
Little scared, Maybe?”
Cruz and his bots are attacking Trump. Little scared, maybe?
OMG, you got me. I typed the wrong homophone in my haste.
I’ll apply 20 demerits and march the perimeter.
I am worn thin by the professional whiners. They are no different than the elite liberal entitled class.
Don’t be too tough on yourself, it was that hugh. ;^}
Is “disrespecting” a word, or is it one of those made up words?
Until recently, I really thought a lot of Cruz and his chances as the nominee until he pretty much decided not to seek a court’s opinion of his citizenship status. I would like that issue settled now and for clarification in the future, and thought he would jump at the chance to do just that. Evidently he doesn’t trust his chances, so he has declined, which speaks volumes.
Trump can do veteran's events any time of the year. By avoiding voter scrutiny and accountability via debate, he is disrespectful of the entire nation. If he's wants to act like an unaccountable king before he's even nominated, imagine what he'll be like when he's elected?
Maybe this is Trump's battle plan for the elections - he's gonna skip every debate he has with Hillary (or Sanders). He'll just tweet his way to victory.
I agree, I just read it again and it was as great the second time as the first. Well done- exclamation point. no keyboard hooked up.
A day doesn’t go by without Rafael putting his foot in his mouth.
Pardon me. What’s a ‘’homophone’’?
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