Posted on 08/07/2015 9:09:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fox News's primetime Republican debate began with an attempt to cow Donald Trump. Would he pledge to forego a third-party candidacy and endorse the eventual Republican nominee?
He would not.
Did he understand the question? Did he realize that would probably guarantee that Hillary Clinton won the White House?
He did. The crowd cheered.
Then it was Megyn Kelly's turn. She read him a litany of horrible terms he's used to describe women. He's called them "fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals."
Trump's response? He only said that about Rosie O'Donnell. The crowd cheered. (Trump was lying, by the way.)
Kelly tried again. She referenced the time Trump told a woman, on national television, "It must be a pretty picture. You dropping to your knees."
"I don't frankly have time for total political correctness," Trump told Kelly. "And to be honest with you, this country doesn't either." The crowd roared.
This is Donald Trump's secret, his strategy, his power. Trump is a honey badger. He just doesn't [expletive] care. He will never, ever give an inch. Better to be a monster than a wuss.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
You cannot embarrass Donald Trump. You cannot back him down with questions that make other candidates buckle. And the crowd loves him for it. They love him because he does not back down. The fact that Trump doesn't back down is the core of Trump-ism. It is the answer to how he will negotiate with the Democrats, with China, with Mexico. He will get what he wants because he doesn't back down.
Is it lunacy? Sure. But it's an appealing kind of lunacy. It's the ultimate Green Lantern Theory of the American Presidency. Candidates always promise that by virtue of their force of character, they will be able to do what their predecessors couldn't, while making fewer compromises than their predecessors made. It's what the people want to hear.
But Trump goes further. There is no border or boundary to his self-confidence. He doesn't just tell you he won't back down. He stands up and shows he won't back down. He is a mathematical proof for himself.
And that makes him almost impossible to trap in this kind of forum. The media keep thinking they can quote Trump's worst statements back to him and he will have to admit their ugliness, he will have to apologize for his basic lack of decency, he will have to reveal a crack in his ego's facade. But they are wrong.
Later in the debate, Fox News brought out the big guns. "15 years ago, you called yourself a liberal on health care," Bret Baier said. "You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system. Why were you for that then and why aren't you for it now?"
Trump's answer? "In July of 2004, I came out strongly against the war with Iraq, because it was going to destabilize the Middle East. And I'm the only one on this stage that knew that and had the vision to say it."
There is something amazing in the sheer gall of that answer. Trump, asked about his heterodoxy on health care, instead says he had the foresight to oppose the Iraq War years after it was launched! They should inscribe that answer on a rock and put a sword in the rock and whoever can pull the sword out of the rock gets a billion dollars because they aren't a [expletive] loser who doesn't understand the greatness of Donald Trump.
And then Trump went onto say "As far as single payer, it works in Canada." Which is actually, you know, true! But there is no other Republican candidate who would say those words on Fox News.
Did Donald Trump win the debate? Lose it? I have no idea. it's not even clear those concepts apply to a candidate like him. By the normal rules of Republican debates, Trump was crushed like a bug. But by the normal rules of Republican presidential campaigns, Trump doesn't exist. Fox News said their insta-poll showed voters turning against Trump, but who knows? My colleague Jon Allen, who was in the arena, reports that when Trump was first introduced, the applause for him was light compared to other candidates. By the end, he was drawing "uproarious cheers" and had seemed to win over the crowd, at least sentimentally.
But Donald Trump proved something last night. Fox News threw everything they had at him, they did it on national television, and he didn't flinch. Donald Trump proved that you cannot embarrass Donald Trump. He is a man who lives entirely without shame or self-doubt. It's like a superpower. And every time he refuses to back down, every time he shows what you can do and say if you have no shame, his supporters thrill to him a little more. After all, if the media can't stop him, then what chance do the Democrats have? What chance do America's enemies have?
Oh that video is precious, a real keeper, a doozy. I love how the two of them played off of each other. They should be in show biz, they are that good, lol. Gave me my giant chuckle for the nite.
Trump, although a bit on the bombastic side, is sounding rather Churchillesque. He makes the left squeal like the stuck pigs they are. The Pubes need to take a page or two from his playbook and run with it. Seems like they can’t shame him into silence, and that’s what America needs to do to those to those socialist America-hating bastard democrats. The more they scream, the better it sounds!
lol, that’s a hoot...!
Oh, you go girl!!! Awesome!
And if the republicans can’t contain him, how are the dems going to do it? Shaming is the dems’ greatest weapon against wimpy repubs. They use it ruthlessly and repubs fold and whimper and submit. What if their kryptonite doesn’t work on a possible opponent? It seems like Trump DOES have a superpower, to be so unaffected by shaming! Yep, they have a little problem.
Even if Trump flames out, it’s been interesting to watch.
Vox is leftist but they are not super-brained. They make errors and and end up sounding positive about strong minded republicans.
Good point. Trump may do what this country needs...if given the chance. He will cut the excess spending...which probably terrifies Washington.
He’s the kind of guy who will take his argument to the public if the democrats don’t cave. Ronald Reagan did that.
Trump is showing the GOP what pathetic p*ssies they've been for the past 40 years, and that the strategy of being nice to Liberals has destroyed them. At least I hope they realize this.
I wish Trump would have run a campaign like this in 2000.
We wouldn't have been stuck with that pansy-girl Bush.
there is no single payer system any where in the world. There are all two tiered systems. the haves have their tier of insurance which is private the have nots have a medicare/vet style system.
Barack Hussein Obama is an embarrassment who is impossible to embarrass. It's his superpower.
Yo, Lil' Ezzie, the latter is much more accurate.
Yeah, Lil' Ezzie, old certified-57-states-stupid Odumbo is a disaster.
A serial liar in a perpetual scandal-ridden administration populated by affirmative action ignoramuses.
The absolute worst POTUS ever, hands down.
But you know, Lil' Ezzie, the only thing that exceeds Obozo's ignorance is his arrogance.
It's his special power, yo.
Maybe. But I would NOT be surprised if he was capable of writing an executive order telling the ATF or even the Army to enforce the registration of every gun in the United States, and telling the Supreme Court and the Congress to p*ss up a rope when they tell him he can't.
Of course, such an order would be disobeyed by millions of Americans, including me, and might just start the civil war that finally destroys America as we know it, finishing what the War of Northern Aggression started.
Trump is NO friend of the peaceably armed American, and soon, we may all get the chance to learn that, but too late.
Trump isn’t just saying any old thing here. He’s chiming in on many key concerns that are both popular and (for what it’s worth) “conservative.”
The old conventions have failed. Donald is not serving up a plate of mush, whatever he is serving up.
Northern Aggression or Southern Foolishness, take your pick.
There is such a thing as “they deserved each other.”
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