Posted on 12/23/2015 8:34:34 AM PST by SeekAndFind
'She was favored to win -- and she got schlonged. She lost, I mean she lost," Donald Trump said, describing Hillary Clinton's 2008 White House bid at a Grand Rapids campaign event Monday night.
This is our presidential race in 2015: "linguistic investigations" into whether the term "schlonged" is accurate Yiddish, consternation over whether it's unacceptably sexist or vulgar, and the Clinton campaign's insistence that the remark requires a response from "everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women."
Trump is the race's shock-jock, a master at gleefully overstepping boundaries we didn't even know were there, and there's little reason to think that the "schlonged" comment will hurt his standing in the polls. Nor will we see immediate fallout from Trump's lengthy assurance on Monday night that he wasn't going to discuss the "disgusting" bathroom break Clinton took during last Saturday's Democratic debate. While he's bobbled the lead in Iowa, Trump is still ahead nationally and in the other early states; so far, the cycle of controversy, outrage, and denunciation hasn't hurt him.
But does this sort of talk help Trump at all? If it brings him closer to the Republican nomination, what does it say about Republicans? And is there any way it won't repel a significant number of voters who might otherwise consider supporting the Republican standard-bearer in November 2016?
The inevitable reply from Trump defenders is that anyone who objects is merely bowing to the false gods of Political Correctness. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen; Trump is just a liberated sage, dropping truth-bombs on a repressed, uptight bourgeoisie. He's the only one willing to say the emperor has no clothes, or the empress is ugly and should put some clothes back on.
When Trump encounters a female rival, critic, or plain old famous person, he bluntly assesses their appearance. "Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" Trump said about Carly Fiorina. "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" He called Fox News's Megyn Kelly a bimbo, declared Heidi Klum is no longer a "ten," wrote Gail Collins to tell her she has the face of a dog, said Arianna Huffington is "a dog who wrongfully comments on me," and deemed Bette Midler "extremely unattractive."
Trump, who keeps marrying younger, prettier models, repeatedly feels the need to publicly point out his own sexual irresistibility to women. He's boasted that women find his power almost as much a turn-on as his money, that "All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me -- consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected," and that "the early victories by the women on The Apprentice were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal."
Sure, some people love Trump, the Insult-Comic Candidate, but many others don't. In a development that could shock only the most blindly faithful Trump supporter, he's polling terribly among women. In Quinnipiac's latest poll, only 25 percent of women have a favorable opinion of Trump, compared with 68 percent who view him unfavorably. His lack of appeal to women has remained fairly consistent from pollster to pollster throughout the year.
At what point does Trump recognize he's already locked up his base, and try to broaden his appeal beyond it? Does he even bother? Has anyone told him that women are a larger segment of the electorate than men -- 53 percent in 2012 -- and that Mitt Romney won only 44 percent of them? Right now, Trump is getting 33 percent of women in a head-to-head matchup against Clinton, and she's consistently beating him in head-to-head polling matchups.
Trump fans will insist that such matchups mean nothing at this point in the race, but their man remains unpopular among the general electorate compared with his Republican rivals. Quinnipiac records 58 percent of registered voters believing he has strong leadership qualities. But 58 percent say he's not honest and trustworthy, 57 percent say he doesn't care about their needs and problems, and 61 percent say he doesn't share their values. Only 33 percent of registered voters say they have a favorable opinion of Trump, compared with 59 percent who view him unfavorably. Half of all respondents said they would feel embarrassed to have Trump as president.
Are more insults going to fix that perception problem? Can you win a majority of electoral votes while running around the country sounding like a hybrid of Andrew Dice Clay and Don Rickles? And if that style leads the Republican party to its third consecutive defeat in a presidential election, who's really getting "schlonged"?
-- Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent for National Review.
Excellent reality. Do not worry about losing the votes of those would not vote for your candidate.
Liberals are not going to vote for a nice guy Republican. They won’t vote for Trump.
What puts off people with no standards about Trump isn’t his rudeness, its that they embraced an anything goes culture a long time ago.
And they’re shocked there are no boundaries in our society. Cue the world’s smallest violins.
I saw that fat faces RINO,Gope,NeoCon , Jeb Bush Puppeteer , Karl Rove this morning on Fox. First let me say that the new narrative on Faux is “ Trump is playing into Hillary’s hands by making her play the victim because she is a woman “ You can’t make that up. How is she going to deal with Isis and Putin— Play the victim? But then they trot out Rove to say that Trump “missed a great opportunity to mention the Benghazi video as another video she lied about and saying that his campaign is not very good.” ( UP 39% to 11%)
Now, we have the the guy who lost $450,000,000 dollars of other people’s money, after he took his cut, guiding Romney into one of the worst campaigns in history blowing a 10 point lead by going silent to play defense against the pass and losing to the the worst President in history, telling Trump how to campaign? . What a damned joke Rove is. Go Trump!
Amazing how many of those with Deranged Trump Syndrome post crap defending the Benghazi murderer and rapist abettor.
They’ll vote for him...he’s like a bad car accident on the highway. You know you shouldn’t look as you go by but you can’t help yourself...
Ha....with the new CNN poll this morning Trump has ruined the GOPe’s Christmas:)
This is such a non-issue.
Trump has solid issues, which he along is speaking about. He is for bringing back American jobs. He is for protecting our borders.
He is all for quite a lot of things which I am fully in favor of.
But he doesn’t take well to nonsense, and that is what the democrats have to offer.
The real question is, when can we hear real issues from the democrats?
Here's some 'words' for you Jim Geraghty:
Paula Jones,
Juanita Broaddrick,
FBI credible rape change,
'Sex slave' claims Bill Clinton visited Epstein's 'orgy island ...',
young Intern used as humidor, Monica AND her mother accused of being 'mentally unbalanced'...
"Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' lie...
and the list goes on
and on
and on
and on....
There ARE words that matter... and need to be used... and thrown in the face of the press that did a cover up ....with their damn wailing about a 'war on women'... enablers...
The beltway crowd can’t begin to imagine how angry and frustrated Republican voters are. Trump is simply tapping into that frustration.
Trump can go all the way. Consider Obama make it all the way on Hope and Change.
Trump is a very media savvy guy. He has single-handedly changed the face of political campaigning in this country. And the media, liberals and establishment GOP can't seem to grasp what he's doing. Their heads are exploding and he still goes up in the polls.
Will it last? Who knows. But for now, he has the media wrapped around his little finger.
“They won’t vote for Trump”
Premature conclusion. Trump’s barely started presenting himself to voters.
>> Do not worry about losing the votes of those would not vote for your candidate.
If you write off all those groups, then you have to win almost all the white males. Some of them are PJ boys.
What we are seeing here is master negotiator at work. Trump is negotiating with the electorate for the Presidency and the Media and the Ruling Class are too dense to realize they are not at the table.
This author left out one of the most important reasons Trump is so popular. He isn’t a career politician. He isn’t an attorney. He is a plain spoken businessman, even if sometimes coarse, who is saying what much, if not most, of true American’s are thinking. It really is just that simple.
He is highly underrated in the polls methinks and now that it’s clear the dem blue collar folks, who have been misled by the dem party all these years, are embracing his message; Trump will go all the way to the WH. I just hope he takes Ted with him so he can follow Trump’s 8 years in office with 8 years of his own.
It would be a great time to be a true American I think if this happens.
More feverish exertions at NR, huffing and puffing manfully away in a vain attempt to take the measure of Trump. Meanwhile, as our Arab friends might say, “The dogs bark, the caravan moves on.”
Latest NRO attack from Geraghty. It’s not “shock.” It’s speaking truth to power, which increasingly includes the NRO.
Judging by his polling numbers, pretty far apparently.
Never underestimate shock value.
National Review - The RINO mag for people that want socialism-lite.
They are pissed they can’t buy him.
Yes Jimmy he can; any other stupid questions?
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