Posted on 03/29/2016 1:10:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Face the Nation on Sunday, I argued that prior to the past week, Donald Trump had made just one tactical mistake: skipping the last debate before Iowa. This past week they made two: failing to grasp the importance of delegate operations and engaging in a misguided and unnecessary attack on Heidi Cruz.
The former is the bigger mistake: the Cruz delegate operation is forcing Trump to get to the delegate majority by working to ensure in states like Louisiana and elsewhere that Trump could lose on a second ballot. In the context of checks and balances, the arcane nomination is yet another way the institutions protect themselves and the people from demagogues and hucksters. Trump’s response has been a typical one: threaten lawsuits over the lost Louisiana delegates. But that won’t amount to much. And actually, should he prevail in decertifying Louisiana’s results, it would lead to fewer delegates for himself, and he’d still have to get to 1,237. Sad!
But the latter mistake speaks to Trump’s personality, and his inability at this stage to become a unifying figure without reversing course – just listen to what happens when Trump gets asked real questions by Charlie Sykes, and the degree to which he falls back on his typical attacks even in the face of demands for evidence not in existence.
At exactly the moment Trump ought to be transforming himself into a unifying figure, he is ensuring that is all the more difficult by stooping to baseless personal attacks and driving down his numbers among Republican women and social conservatives. In failing to recognize the importance of delegates and in engaging in these unnecessary personal attacks, Trump decreases his potential to win the nomination on the first ballot. If Trump is actually beaten because of these decisions it shows he’s not ready to lead a party anyway.
And lest you think this is just typical anti-Trump tendency, listen to his supporters: Ann Coulter, a more dedicated Trump defender than any, is getting frustrated with Trump for his late night Twitter shenanigans:
“I’m a little testy with our man right now. Our candidate is mental! Do you realize our candidate is mental?” Coulter said jokingly during a taping of an episode of the “Milo Yiannopoulos Show,” which is scheduled to air in full this weekend. “It’s like constantly having to bail out your 16-year-old son from prison.”
“For Coulter, Trump’s attacks on Cruz’s wife may have crossed a line, and she wished he, “would be a teensy bit less low-brow.” “This is the worst thing that he has done,” she said as her host laughed. “Everything else I could probably defend.”
The hilarious but occasionally terrifying Yiannopoulos, who Kevin Williamson described as having “done more to put homosexual camp in the service of right-wing authoritarianism than any man has since the fellows at Hugo Boss sewed all those nifty SS uniforms”, disagreed, defending the man he calls “Daddy”.
“The trashier he gets, the more I love him!” the host said. “I think it’s so outrageously funny. People are so sick of earnest pearl-clutching from the establishment. A presidential candidate — and not just a presidential candidate, but somebody who’s probably going to get the nomination is saying ‘you’re wife’s ugly and my wife’s hot’ — I think that’s amazing. It may not scream ‘presidential material…’ But some people are going to think ‘what a boss!’”
“Coulter responded, saying, “You know, I love him so much on immigration I’m not even going to argue with you. I say low-brow, you say amazing … Let’s just talk about what he’s good on. He’s the only one who’s going to build a wall, but please stop testing our patience on the rest of this stuff.”
Coulter is a lot of things, but she’s no dummy. She understands that by politicizing Heidi Cruz’s depression and her appearance, Trump is hurting his ability to ever receive the support of a growing portion of Republican women, particularly social conservatives and evangelicals. D.C. McAllister:
One thing I’ve learned through my own struggles with depression is those who don’t suffer from it can’t possibly understand what you’re going through. They think you’re just sad, but it’s so much deeper than that. Only you know the pain in your own heart. The window to your soul is closed to the world. This is why exploiting Cruz’s suffering is so wrong. It cheapens the real struggles of millions of people and exposes the personal pain of a lovely woman who has struggled to overcome a terrible illness and has done it with grace. We should show her, and anyone else wrestling with depression, that same grace.
When your most loyal media supporter is saying you’re mental, low-brow, and that these latest attacks are the worst thing your candidate has done, it should send a message to any normal campaign that you ought to reconsider your course. The acolytes Trump surrounds himself with, however, seem to have little capacity for such reflection. We shall see if they prove me wrong.
Yeah, pretty much. I don’t think Trump can beat Hillary, but if he doesn’t, it won’t be my fault.
Ya think?
Not done by Cruz, that’s what it was.
We’ve known Ann is mental for some time now.
Now I’m confused again. Wasn’t she completely rehabilitated due to her rumbustious support of He-Man Trump?
This is starting to feel like the Soviet Union. Miss one memo, and Zot! that’s it for you!
You must not have been here, or didn’t pay attention.
It was ‘magnificent,’ not ‘glorious.’
Man, that’s calling the pot calling the kettle black
Evidently you unilaterally decided she was completely rehabilitated.
That’s on you.
Time to defect.
OK, my memory failed me on that distinction.
Is Cruz Mental or is it he likes to meet young females at a rental? I get confused.
Then you should have gone to that thread running today where the majority of Trumpers said they wouldn't vote for Cruz if he were the nominee. Saturday, numerous Cruz supporters were kicked off the site for saying they wouldn't vote for Trump. Interesting times around here.
Ann is old.
If you are over 40, you aren’t going to get it.
LOLOLing at both of y’alls comments.
At least we know Ann hasn’t lost her famous courage to speak her mind.
If Donald Trump hears that Ann’s called him ‘’mental’’ and other unflattering things, his likeliest response will be to attack her looks — for example, by announcing that ‘’She’s no longer a 10!’’ as he said about Heidi Klum, or he could find the most unflattering picture of Ann ever taken and have his friends at the National Enquirer spread it across their cover next week.
>>Maybe there are a lot of voters like me out there: if they polled me, I would say I have a negative view of Trump. However, I will vote for him if he’s the Republican nominee, out of hatred for Hillary.<<
When you vote for someone to be President of the U.S., you’re explicitly stating that you want that person to be your leader. There is no way in hell I would express that wish, whether my choice be Hillary, Trump, or for that matter, Bernie.
If a third party option doesn’t present itself, I’ll vote down ballot and leave the top line blank. I will not put myself in the position of having to admit to my children and grandchildren that I once seriously considered Donald Trump as a potential leader of the free world.
Now, Rush Limbaugh has more or less stated that such a position disqualifies those of us who think as I do from commenting on the race. Nonsense. Just because he and millions of Trump followers, and Coulter as well, have decided they can stomach an oaf like Trump as their leader is no reason for the rest of us to bow to their wishes.
What Trump’s followers need to realize is that for most of them (outside the FR world anyway) Cruz is an acceptable alternative whereas for most non-Trump voters, Trump is not an acceptable alternative. Common sense would then dictate that Cruz is the more electable candidate, and I’ll leave it at that, except for saying that Cruz was hardly my first choice, but I’m willing to accept him as President. As for Trump; no.
Anybody looking for happiness in politics is a child.
Politics is war, and war is ugly. And the winners of wars are not the pretty ones. We can vote for Mitt's status quo grinning white teeth, Bernie's skittles and rainbows and starvation, Cruz's globalist totalitarianism, Hillary's Auschwitz dreams, or for Trump to grease the treads of our tanks with the guts of our enemies ala' Patton.
That's it. Heaven is for the next life, not this one.
Of course Trump is "mental". Anyone that has followed his career and "The Apprentice" knows he is firing on 8 cylinders when he only has 6 available. Trump is a thin-skinned megalomaniac that has managed to say all the right generalities for the PO'd conservatives. He's a poor debater, has no statesmanship, and switches his positions like every other GOPe - not to mention he's supported SO many liberal causes in the past.
The above said, I am now saddened to watch Cruz get sucked into the mud-raking. The Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute put him in the top percentile as a conservative. He actually has fought the DC elites, although some say he didn't do enough. I say you can only do so much when fighting the establishment. Still, he is not the new Reagan I first saw.
I've been trying to stay away from these threads regarding Cruz vs Trump as I've watched the crap fly. Both are now disappointing and an embarrassment to me, not to mention some world leaders. This presidential cycle is the most bizarre since Perot "Well, we'll just fix it" handed the Oval Office to Billy-boy, the womanizer.
Of course, I will vote against Hillary - obviously guilty of RICO and National Security laws. I personally believe the FBI will submit a recommendation for indictment via a Grand Jury they probably already have in place. Obama's puppet Attorney General will not indict, but the specifics will get out before November and Hillary will be dead in the water.
Then what will Trump or Cruz do against Bernie, the admitted socialist leader of the "gimmes" in debates? I believe Cruz can detail to the "common people" the benefits of capitalism and the FF's ideals, not so such for Trump. He would just repeat, "We'll fix it, and I'll put up a wall and make Mexico pay for it". Trump's advisors are clueless. All they need do is look at the highly successful double patrolled fence in California that reduced illegal immigration to some 95% (thanks to Rep. Duncan Hunter, Sr.). That's why Arizona became such a problem with no such barrier. And that's why I became a Minuteman.
This was our last opportunity to reverse course of our Republic's slide into pure socialism, of which we are somewhat now. I no longer believe we will not become a EU entity.
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