Posted on 02/02/2012 11:01:05 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
LAS VEGAS—It’s Donald Trump’s world. Mitt Romney just diminished himself in it.
That’s the lasting impression left by Thursday’s media frenzy in Las Vegas, where Romney steered his increasingly momentous drive for the Republican presidential nomination into the cartoon arms of a clearly delighted Donald.
Endorsements come, endorsements go — and in most elections, they don’t mean all that much. Especially coming from self-aggrandizing hype factories on the sidelines.
But in making the pilgrimage for what was essentially a ring-kissing ceremony inside Trump’s gilded hotel on the Vegas strip, Romney appears to have gone carnival barking up the wrong tree.
Barely a month ago, the real estate mogul and reality television star suffered an epic humiliation when his plans to host a presidential debate fell apart, not least because Romney wanted nothing to do with the “clown show.”
While nobody wore big red noses inside the Trump International Hotel, the effect was the same.
Romney himself picked up on the irony in his brief remarks after pronouncing himself “delighted” at the backing of the orange-haired billionaire.
“There are some things you just can’t imagine in your life,” said Romney. “This is one of them.”
Trump milked the moment for all it was worth, acknowledging his many previous criticisms of Romney in a sidebar with reporters but claiming he now knows the candidate better.
“He’s smart. He’s sharp. He’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love,” Trump declared. “So Gov. Romney, go out and get ’em.”
With that, Trump pressed the flesh, clutching Romney with a two-hander as his head swivelled to mug for the cameras. Romney kept his part of the handshake to a single hand, all the while staring rigidly at Trump, denying photographers the two-shot.
Romney exited backstage, where his travelling entourage now includes Secret Service protection — another strong signal that while the race goes on, he is the man to beat.
But if there was any doubt who got the lift from this spectacle, Trump made his exit right through the heart of the media mob, quoting his way to the front doors of his hotel in a slow-moving scrum before hopping into one of two black Chevy Suburbans — relevant again.
Even before Thursday’s scene in Vegas, the U.S. political media were abuzz with mockery bordering on self-loathing over the premium they were paying to Trump’s pledge of a “major announcement.”
Initial reports by the Associated Press, the New York Times and Washington Post, among others, wrongly predicted he would endorse Newt Gingrich. So as the Vegas moment approached with the promise of clarity, a media circus seemed assured, even if Trump stood alone at the podium.
But the fact that Romney came to collect — a gesture he did not make two weeks ago when Jon Huntsman dropped out of the race and promptly endorsed him — gave America’s political press the excuse it needed to make this the news of the day.
Among the 75 Romney supporters at the Trump announcement was Dawson White, 38, an expat Montrealer who now lives and works in Vegas as a financial adviser.
“This doesn’t seal the deal for Romney. But I have no problem with how much coverage this is getting,” said White.
“It’s obvious now that there is a very strong chance Mitt Romney could become the next president of the United States. It’s not the reporters’ fault. He’s now a big story wherever he goes.”
Still, there was plenty of blowback after the joint appearance over the optics of Romney’s decision to so vividly re-validate the musings of the The Donald.
The move placed a megamillionaire candidate already struggling to connect with impoverished U.S. voters in the warm embrace of the country’s most bilious billionaire. It also enables President Barack Obama’s re-election machine to attach Trump’s colourful assortment of loose-cannon fire directly to Romney.
Interestingly, Fox News, the unabashed bastion of American conservatism, played down the Trump card, with one on-air host, Shepard Smith, wondering tongue-in-cheek when Shakira and Big Bird would announce their endorsements.
Fox followed up with a poll of its own that showed 6 per cent of respondents saying they would be more likely to vote for a Trump-backed candidate versus 31 per cent who said they would be less likely.
But the response from the Democratic National Committee was perhaps more telling. Rather than craft a pointed rebuttal to the Trump-Romney alliance, the Democrats simply forwarded the Romney campaign email to their press list.
Evidently, on this day, they calculated Team Romney had already done their work for them.
this is why we need a redneck revolution. newt inspired the rednecks of south carolina. he needs to inspire the rednecks of america, even those who don’t know they are rednecks. with even a goodly smattering of yellow, red, tan, and black rednecks too.
Soros bailed out Trump who was facing bankruptcy and a multi-million personal guarantee to Deutsche Bank on his Chicago hotel back in 2008-2009. Soros “fixed” things in Chicago and with Deutsche Bank so Trump is just doing Soros bidding as payback
.from another poster..can not remember the name
.. hat tip
More details would be enlightening, as it wasn’t very clear to me at least that Soros managed to put Trump into his pocket. If he has... it’s an even bigger game changer. Obomney. Rombama. Sounds like a mystical chant.
I await the Sigfried and Roy endorsement of Willard.
Proof that Romney is a Bloomberg style Republican,in other words a Left wing Hack,that is who Trump has been dealing with his entire life in New York
Harry Reid got to be Majority Leader in the Senate thanks to Trump in 2010, bipolar supporter....
Yesterday an endorsement from Trump was gold and he hung the moon. Today, weasel words.
Ordinary people's thoughts are now that real businesses would start hiring with a Romney unlike Obama who never had a job in his life prior to entering politics.
More stupid people signing up. That would be my answer.
I just can’t believe the GOP-e, can’t see...maybe in denial...maybe in the regime back pocket....that this kind of endorsement plays right into 0bama’s campaign against the 1%, capitalist, big business BS.
I am standing back shaking my head a lot this week. A LOT. The level of my own utter disbelief at what we are truly witnessing and yet are unable to see!
It is something I said back in 2008 about the 0bamamania, they had eyes and ears and yet could not hear or see. And now, it seems this same demon has indeed infested the GOP.
Some here still want to say it is the elites, but who the heck is casting all these votes? I will tell you...everyday Republicans. The party is drinking the kool-aid willing folks. They are drinking not in glasses, but in buckets and barrels.
Uhuh. The same real Golden Calf Worshiping REMF Suuuuper Genius Grocery Clerks who delivered Burger King and Piza Hut to Afghanistan -- when the men in the field were forced to improvise toilet paper whilst securing Emperor Obama's Opium supplies.
F Donald Trump and The Company jackwagon he paddled his oranged-haired arse into the Heart of Darkness Las Vegas on.
FAIL.
Actually I see this as the ends being played against the middle....
A ‘Trump Endorsement’ is the last thing any republican candidate needs or should even want.
0bama’s playbook against big business is wide open and this endorsement just plays right into it. Corperate jets and 1% all. This is the worst thing that could have happened and I think Trump got paid $$$$ or special favors by the regime to do this.
I don’t for one second believe this as an honest endorsement. Trump doesn’t play that way at all.
The Trump shenanigans about the BC were staged. Staged to get it off the election year table. Worked more or less except for a few stray stories and courts...it is out of the public eye.
Trump is the useful tool of the regime.
According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages.The first stage being "demoralization".It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least 3 generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism.--KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov--Soviet Subversion of the Free Press (Ideological subversion, Destabilization, CRISIS - and the KGB)
My thoughts n the “orange hair billionaire”: here:
here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2841656/posts?q=1&;page=331#331
SO you’ve not been following the GA case?
One would hope the primary benefit would be that the Donald blowhard and China basher will now leave the stage and be silent.
No, no, he'll be Romney's Real Estate Czar! :)
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