Posted on 02/26/2016 9:46:42 PM PST by kiryandil
Last night was quite-amusing. I met a friend for a brewski and managed to get home in time to catch nearly all of it.
You have to sit back with amazement at the complicity of the media in going along with whatever political winds certain parts of a party wish to unfurl their sails into. In this case it was "Rubio and Cruz attack Trump" night, an agenda that those two candidates declared but the moderators did not have to oblige, ignoring (for the most part) Kascich and Carson while giving all the questions to the other three.
They did, however, so-oblige, which simply underlines that these are not "debates" at all.
A debate, my friends, is not driven by the agendas of the participants. The moderator(s) are supposed to be neutral parties and debates are conducted under fairly-specific and formal sets of rules -- something that never happens in the political sphere, but if you ever actually participated in the scholarly version of a debate you know how they work.
The result was that Kascich and Carson might as well not have showed up; they were really just ornaments on the stage. Maybe that's appropriate given their poll numbers and maybe not, but if you're going to do that then don't invite them at all, instead of pretending that they're participants. I suppose there was some value there in that Carson refused to defend his participation, and if you can't do that then what are you doing on the national stage? Kascish at least tried. In short it's time for Ben Carson to go home; he simply never had the stomach for either the fight or the job, and while both were obvious from the outset there's a point at which it becomes painful to watch. We're there.
Kascich is being beaten, badly, and will probably lose Ohio. At that point he's done and will probably mortally wound himself as a governor too. Good; he has it coming.
Now on to Rubio, Cruz and Trump.
Rubio had a bad night. He once again looked like he was going to stroke out on live TV. Marco, this is independent of your policy positions, which incidentally I couldn't disagree with more, especially when it comes to your grandstanding on Apple, predicated on lies you were willing to repeat on-stage, and your outrageous support of open borders, offshoring of labor and similar. No, it's simply this: You clearly don't handle stress well and it's visible in your demeanor and physical appearance in these contests. God help you at a poker table, and the reality of being President is that rough times come, bad days happen more often than good and stress -- lots of it -- is a daily part of the job.
You've never run a company or dealt with a seriously, day-to-day, every-day adversarial life before, and it shows. It shows in your sweat, in your demeanor, in you tripping over yourself and being unable to think on your feet. You're a patina of class painted over a young person who's never had to grit his or her teeth and get it done. It's obvious, it's immediately visible to opponents and in the context of international relations it would be extremely dangerous.
Cruz isn't much better. Rubio loses his mind and falls back on his inner reptile, repeating what he drilled, when under stress. Cruz is worse; he's a lawyer who has actually been caught with his pants down in an actual adversarial situation, and he reverts to what many attorneys do in that situation because he knows that if the "inner reptile" shows up he loses his case: He instead makes crap up out of whole cloth -- that is, he lies.
The problem with said lies is that once you tell one you've got to keep track of it because if you fail to do so you'll eventually contradict yourself. In the practice of law you can get away with this for a long time before you get censured or disbarred (go ask either Clinton about that) for the simple reason that once the case is over, it's over you you start over. It's only when you get caught immediately, or close enough to immediately that the case remains pending and hasn't run the clock on appeal windows (or you're out of appeal options) that you're screwed.
This doesn't work in international relations or for that matter domestic policy, because the case never ends!
Go ask Obama, or Hillary for that matter, about that.
Neither of these two has any business in the left seat of anything more complicated than a lawn mower.
Trump, on the other hand, does get*****ed off when someone pulls a line of crap. But he doesn't flip his ****. He's able to think on his feet, speak without a teleprompter (see his various appearances; none of which have featured said "assistance" that I have seen thus far) and take questions without them being filtered through his campaign first, yet develop a cogent response.
You can't do that unless you actually have some sort of consistent view of the world, your place in it, and where you want to see it go.
You can disagree with Trump's vision if you'd like, but people really need to cut the crap because when you get down to it the principles, which Trump has not changed on in all the years I've been able to find evidence of, are pretty simple:
In short I think Trump had a great night. I don't think either of the other clowns laid a glove on him and both displayed on stage traits that will get us nuked in our own homes, for real, if they become President.
In the end elections should be about policy but when you have a party that allows candidates to get this far into the process that are unable to face their own contestants for the nomination without breaking out in a cold sweat or losing their ability to think to the point that they start making things up out of whole cloth the blame lies with the Party, not the candidate.
Neither Cruz or Rubio has any legitimate place on the world stage, say much less as President of the United States.
Trump does.
Clearly written by a blind Trumpkin. Cruz and Rubio had an excellent night; Trump didn’t.
Link is above.
It was the Battle of the Bulge.
Cruz and Rubio launched their last offensive and it failed. It’s going to be over on Tuesday.
Time to start planning for the reconstruction.
From the comment section of the above article:
I just got off the phone with a friends wife who was in the Lutz group last night and she told me that the group was padded with Rubio supporters. She is a pro Trump supporter and almost none of her comments were televised. They were selective on the questions for the viewing audience.
Didn’t Luntz have a nice fat contract with Rubio a few years back? Of course!
Well said.
Bookmark
Trump knows what he's talking about.
bump
That article sure has Rubio and Cruz nailed.
Especially the part about Rubios physical appearance at these debates. Not ready for Prime Time. And never will be.
Lets see...... TBP has been a member since 1998, and you since 2012. Who should be gone?
Very good article, written by someone from a business background. I’ve been trying to articulate that what Trump is saying is not the least bit simplistic; it’s just Greek to many listeners who don’t hear the “Policy” gobbledygook they’re accustomed to.
One thing I disagree with is on Kasich. I think he is edging into the Trump universe as possible VEEP material. His blue-collar, union state is fertile ground for Trumpism. People should remember that VP candidates quickly don the coloration of their POTUS Candidate, and Kasich is definitely pragmatic enough to do so, while using a softer style. He also has the political experience Trump says he is after.
Not inferring that you are a noob, just that I think you have gall suggesting that a 18 Year Freeper leaves just because he doesn't agree with your twisted tRumpet logic.
But since you do bring it up, senority does come with privileges, including laughing off ridiculous suggestions from people who have been here 1/4 time you have.
His employers told him to say that. If you notice he hasn’t been around on the day shift lately, it’s because he was outed by another FReeper:
“Hi TBP!! For those who don’t know his background - TBP aka (Tim Barnes Phares) is the press Director of Council of Khalistan a Washington DC-based organisation lobbying on behalf of the Pakistani government.”
Resorting to personal attacks..... How trumpet of you.
Replying to personal attacks with name calling???
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