Anyone See A Pattern Here?

"I opened a club, and really got great credit for it. No discrimination against African-Americans, against Muslims, against anybody. And it's a tremendously successful club. And I'm so glad I did it. And I have been given great credit for what I did. And I'm very, very proud of it. And that's the way I feel. That is the true way I feel."

-- Donald Trump, patting himself on the back during Monday's debate for not discriminating against people at a Palm Beach club he opened.

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"You want to know the truth, I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary, to her family and I said to myself, I can't do it. I just can't do it."

-- Donald Trump, near the end of the debate, praising himself for not bringing up Bill Clinton's PenisGate Scandal.

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"He’s gotten very little credit for how gracious he was at the beginning and end of the debate. At the very beginning ― and nobody is covering this ― he actually said, ‘Secretary Clinton,’ and then he looked over and he said, ‘May ... should I call you Secretary Clinton? I want you to be happy -- this is very important to me.’”

-- Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway, noting that Trump did not call his opponent "Crooked Hillary" during the debate and instead decided to merely patronize her.

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"I'm really proud of him for doing that and I think a lot of people recognize that. I mean, a lot of people came up to me, including many of the media, saying, 'Listen, he could've just crushed her on that last question and he probably would've hurt a family if he did.' That was a big moment for me ... and probably something I'll always remember and he really took the high ground when he had the opportunity to go very, very low, and I'm proud of him for doing that."

-- Eric Trump, praising his father for not bringing up Bill Clinton's marital infidelities during a debate with Bill Clinton's wife.

UPDATE:  As an aside, I really do think that Trump not bringing up Bill Clinton's infidelities during the debate was the result of a compromise within the Trump Campaign.  I think Donald probably wanted to bring it up, but Kellyanne Conway and others within the campaign did not want him to do so, given the fact that Trump famously cheated on one of his former wives.  A compromise was apparently reached in that Trump agreed not to directly mention it so long as he could indirectly refer to it during the debate and his campaign would subsequently praise him for not directly mentioning it during the debate.

A Fair And Balanced Look At Trump's Disastrous Debate Performance

I must admit I was surprised by Trump's debate performance last night.  I was certain he would come out acting presidential and such.  After all, as Trump has previously noted, he could shoot someone in broad daylight and not lose any of his core support.  The folks he needed to court last night were the moderate Republican voters who question his fitness to be Commander-in-Chief; and by Trumpian standards, he initially appeared to be toning things down a bit in order to appear more presidential. 

But then things quickly started to go off the rails for Donald. He was so bad at times that he appeared to be performing a spoof on how not to appear during a debate.

One of the more interesting reactions to all this belonged to NBC's Chuck Todd.  He complained that neither candidate actually talked much about substance and instead focused on themselves.  But like it or not, presidential debates are not remembered for their substance, at least not since they started televising them. 

Just look at the things we remember from previous debates.  Have you ever heard anybody say something like, "you know, I'll never forget the excellent point Al Gore made about Social Security in one of the 2000 debates."?  Of course not.  What folks remember about the 2000 debates was that Al Gore sighed.  Nobody remembers a thing George H.W. Bush said during any of the 1992 debates -- all anyone remembers is that Poppy Bush looked at his watch.  Any points Richard Nixon made during the 1960 Debate against Kennedy were overshadowed by how much Nixon was sweating.

When judged on the appearance standard alone, Trump's performance last night was an unmitigated catastrophe, especially when you consider that Trump is an established television personality who should  be aware that appearance is everything. Indeed, he conducted a clinic on how not to appear during a debate. 

Forget about all the times he rudely interrupted Hillary.  That was just a small part of the big, ugly portrait Trump was painting of himself.  As Howard Dean noted, it looked like Donald had just done a line or two of cocaine moments before walking onto the stage, given all the sniffling, snorting, and water drinking he did last night.  I thought that when Trump wasn't speaking, he was making motions and facial expressions that looked a lot like South Park's version of Saddam Hussein.  And when he was speaking, he was profoundly incoherent, particularly during the second half of the debate.

But let's not allow Trump's crappiness to overshadow Hillary's strong performance, particularly given that she was largely responsible for Donald's meltdown.  HRC had a toughest job of all.  The only thing Trump had to do is appear minimally presidential.  Hillary, on the other hand, had to needle Trump just enough to set him off but at the same time not appear too overbearing.  Well, Mission Fucking Accomplished.  And her response to Trump's answer on Birtherism was one for the ages.

How much will all this affect poll numbers? Well, 70 to 80 million people watched Hillary kick Trump's ass last night, so my feeling is that the polls will respond by not fluctuating like they've been doing of late and instead settle down to where Hillary maintains a five-point lead nationally and a comfortable lead in enough swing states to drastically limit Trump's pathways to an Electoral College victory.  In other words, it ain't over yet, folks, but it just might be the beginning of the end.

Trump Apparently Wants Credit For ENDING Birtherism

Well, Trump is back saying and tweeting stupid shit again.  His big problem now appears to be that either he or someone in his campaign thought they had a great idea on how to deal with Donald's Birther history before he is questioned on it during the debates. 

I have a feeling it was Donald himself who came up with this great idea on how to handle his Birther problem -- but in any event, thanks to the deployment of this new strategy, Trump actually made himself look worse on the Birther issue, something I didn't think was possible. 

His new take on the matter is that Hillary started Birtherism in 2008 -- a lie that every one of his surrogates seems willing to perpetuate -- and that Donald actually came to Obama's defense by looking into the matter.  His apparently position now is: "Evil Hillary's allegation against Obama, thanks to me, has now been thoroughly debunked and that I, The Donald, should actually be praised because I was the one who put the issue to bed once and for all when I forced Obama to release his long-form birth certificate."

That's why Trump's surrogates have been saying for weeks that Hillary started the Birther movement -- they were laying the groundwork for this strategy.  Now they are saying stuff like, "well, this issue was resolved years ago" -- i.e., they are trying to re-write history by saying that Birtherism was an issue during Obama's first term, but thanks to Donald's leadership, that issue was resolved five years ago and we can now move on to the matter of Making America Great Again.

The problem with this new strategy is there is no evidence Hillary started Birtherism or that anyone in her 2008 Campaign was even questioning Obama's birth records.  That "story" has been debunked by more than one news organization.  An even bigger problem is that by not apologizing to Obama for Birtherism, Trump is basically stating that it was a legitimate issue to spend a metric fuck-ton of time on and not the fringe conspiracy theory that it actually was.  In other words, he basically doubled down on Birtherism. 

I have a feeling the Media isn't going to let him get away with this. From what I've seen lately, media and press folks are starting to get fed up with Trump and all his bullshit.

TrumpCo's Non-Apology On Birtherism Backfires

Earlier this month, I expressed some surprise when Trump surrogates started commenting on Birtherism. It made no sense to me that they decided to do so at this late hour. I thought the best move for Trump was to simply continue to say he doesn't talk about Birtherism anymore. Such a response would make for some pretty tough moments for Donald -- especially if the issue came up during one of the debates -- but that is the price a major presidential candidate pays when he has a history of not only taking such an overtly racist position but assuming a leadership role in pushing the racial hatred.

But Trump's people apparently decided that Donald needed to come clean on this issue and admit that Obama was in fact born in the United States. So last Friday, Trump made a short statement wherein he admitted that Obama was born here, but did not answer any questions on his change of heart -- despite the fact that his campaign called this event a "press conference" -- and did not apologize to Obama for all the lies. Indeed, Trump blamed Hillary for the rise of Birtherism, an outright lie that many Republicans are more than happy to repeat, including Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

But the GOP's "Hillary Started It!" Fuckery is not the only lie the GOP is telling now that we have entered the Post-Birther Era. Trump surrogate Chris Christie had this exchange yesterday with CNN's Jake Tapper:

TAPPER : “Well, just as a point of fact, again, Donald Trump did not accept when Barack Obama released his birth certificate in 2011. He kept up this whole birther thing until Friday. That’s five years. But we only have a little time left. So, I want to ask you…”

CHRISTIE: “No, but, Jake, that’s just not true. It’s not true that he kept it up for five years.”

TAPPER: “Sure, he did.”

CHRISTIE: “It’s simply not true.”

TAPPER: “It is true.”

Jake Tapper is right -- Trump did push his Birther Horseshit for many years after Obama released his long-form birth certificate.  In fact, Christie's statement that Trump dropped Birthersim after 2011 rated Four Pinocchios from the Washington Post's fact checker.  The Post added:

This is such bogus spin that we have to wonder how Christie manages to say it with a straight face. Regular readers know we shy away from using the word “lie,” but clearly Christie is either lying or he is so misinformed that he has no business appearing on television.

As Steve Benen noted this morning: "In a way, Trump put his friends in an impossible position, sending them out to defend the indefensible, urging them to lie on his behalf. It’s not surprising that this didn’t go well."

Up Yours, Mainstream Media

This video almost made me physically ill:

It depicts various CNN people expressing their recently-acquired outrage -- outrage I say -- over Trump and the racist Birther crap he has been spewing over the last several years. My question to these media types is: Where the fuck were you five years ago when Trump swore himself in as Birther-In-Chief?

He was obviously lying through his teeth back then on this issue -- particularly about sending investigators to Hawaii to look into whether Obama was actually born there -- yet you media assholes covered it like a legitimate news story. 

Folks in the so-called Liberal Media are just as responsible for the rise of Trump as the GOP is.  Instead of expressing outrage over Trump's birtherism, they should be apologizing for their horseshit "reporting" on this "story" over the years.

A Few Of My Favorite Things From The Past Week

I have been thoroughly enjoying politics of late. Here are my three favorites happenings from the last few days, in no particular order:

BIRTHER DEBATE REBORN: This surprised me because I really didn't expect Trump or his campaign to comment on it this cycle. The most I expected was a debate question to Trump about Birtherism, a question he would dodge. But Trump's own people brought up the issue of Donald's status as Birther-in-Chief. Ben Carson was the first to jump in, saying last Tuesday that Trump should apologize for demanding that Obama produce his papers. On Thursday, Rudy "Batshit-Crazy" Giuliani told Chris Matthews that Trump no longer thinks Obama was born outside this country. Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, said basically the same thing today.

Of course, the one person who really needs to chime in on this issue is Donald himself.  At first I thought folks like Carson, Giuliani, and Conway might be paving the way for Trump to finally come clean and admit he was wrong about the President.  But then I came to my senses and realized there is no way Trump would ever apologize for this because the Media would have a metric fuck-ton of follow-up questions for him (e.g., When did you stop beating your Birther drum? Did you actually send investigators to Hawaii and if so, can we talk to them?  Are you really as big of a racist as you seem?).

TRUMP/PUTIN--AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER: Seriously, what is going on between these two?  Trump has to know that the more he praises Vladimir Putin, the more he appears like a traitor to his fellow Americans. Yet he is willing to look like a KGB puppet because he wants to stand by his man. Christ, he even came to Putin's defense the other day by denying -- I guess on behalf of the Soviet Union Russia -- that Putin's folks weren't responsible for the DNC hack, and he did so during an interview on Russian State-Controlled television! You just can't make this shit up.

INTEL HELL: Trump pissed off the U.S. Intelligence Community big time this week when he stated he could tell from the body language of his classified intelligence briefers that they were not happy with Obama. This is a great example of something that cannot be proven one way or t'other but that everyone -- including Trump -- knows is complete horseshit. It was also revealed that retired General Michael Flynn, who accompanied Trump on one of those briefings, lost his shit and got testy with the intelligence guys, so much so that Chris Christie had to talk him down. I also heard he slapped a couple of soldiers. Okay, I made up that last part, but it wouldn't surprise me much if something like that happened at a future briefing.

"I Think What Donald Meant Was . . ."

I watched a panel on CNN this morning discuss last night's Commander-In-Chief Forum. Donald Trump said some pretty stupid things during the Forum, such as praising Putin because he has "82% approval" in Russia, claiming that he never supported the Iraq War, and stating we should have taken Iraq's oil, etc.. Trump surrogates on the panel were asked this morning whether they agreed with these ridiculous statements. Five times the Trump surrogates responded, "Well, I think what Donald meant was . . ."

This touches upon one of my biggest problems I have visualizing Trump as President, namely, his penchant for saying stupid shit and the corresponding need for his supporters to constantly correct him or defend him by stating, "well, what Donald really meant to say was . . ." 

Now, no president -- or candidate for that office -- is immune from the "saying stupid shit" syndrome, but Donald appears to be way more afflicted with this illness than most. Needless to say, this is a troublesome problem for someone running for President of the United States. 

Markets crash when the Leader of the Free World says dumb things.  If Trump somehow becomes president, is he going to have to appoint a special "Secretary of Corrections" who has to come out every day and say, "What President Trump really meant with that statement was . . ."?

One thing I like about Obama -- and Hillary -- is that they both are very careful with what they say in public.  Obama learned that lesson the hard way.  Remember the GOP attacking Obama when he said to American business owners "you didn't build that"? Obama was referring to the roads and infrastructure that are used by America's businesses, but the Republicans tried to argue that Obama was really accusing U.S. business owners of not actually building their own businesses.  This line of attack really didn't amount to much, but Republicans nonetheless repeated their horseshit "interpretation" for years, no doubt because it played well with the GOP's radicalized, Obama-hating base.

Bottom line:  America cannot afford to have a president whose statements have to be corrected on a daily basis.  Trump would be precisely that type of Commander-in-Chief, and this makes him wholly unfit for the job.

Time For Hillary And Obama To End Their Republican Outreach Efforts

I have been critical of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for reaching out to Republicans during this election cycle. Obama did it in his convention speech and Hillary did it last week during her speech about the Alt-Right.  My main problem with this approach is that, by categorizing Trump as a mere anomaly -- and not the result of radicalization within the GOP -- the Democrats are letting Republicans off the hook and thus making it harder to convince down-ballot voters to punish the GOP for creating the conditions which allowed Trump to rise.

As recently noted by Ed Kilgore, Hillary's outreach strategy makes no political sense in the short term:

[W]hether or not it works in terms of peeling off Republican voters, Clinton’s outreach to them is risky and not really necessary. Yes, in the long run converting today’s Republicans into tomorrow’s Democrats is part of a strategy of building a governing majority that can put the Donkey Party back in that breathtaking moment in November of 2008 when all things seemed possible. But the changing nature of the electorate will do more to make that happen than all the “bipartisanship” or cross-partisan outreach you could want. And in the heat of this year’s presidential battle, taking the fight to the partisan enemy makes more sense than begging it to surrender.

I couldn't agree more, especially given that Hillary is absolutely hated by Republicans. Indeed, they have been conditioned over the last quarter century to hate her. Had the Democrats nominated a candidate who enjoyed better likeability numbers, this outreach strategy might have been worth a try. But Hillary is the second most unpopular major party nominee in history and is thus unsuited to make the pitch for Republicans to cross over and vote Democrat this cycle.

The Democrats should instead pivot off this conciliatory approach and begin aggressively attacking the GOP for creating the political conditions which allowed the rise of Donald Trump, the most unpopular major party candidate in history. And the person leading this attack should be Barack Obama, who had a front-row seat to the radicalization of the Republican Party in recent years and is currently enjoying a surge in popularity.

Obama should campaign, not for Hillary, but for Democrats down-ballot. He should show up to campaign rallies for Democratic Senate, House, and gubernatorial candidates who are in close races with their GOP opponents and make a pitch that the voters of this country need to punish the GOP for allowing white nationalists to seize control of the Republican Party. 

Gary Legum at Salon summed it up best yesterday when he wrote:

Why not remind the public at every turn that this warped, deformed version of the Party of Lincoln, the electoral equivalent of Quasimodo without the redeeming inner beauty, was fundamentally broken as a political institution and should not be trusted to run so much as an ice cream truck, let alone the massive apparatus of government?

Amen.  Hillary and the Democrats have superior ground forces, whereas Trump and the GOP have no ground game at all. Time to take the gloves off, folks.

Bonus Quote of the Week

"When Trump famously pointed to a black audience member during a recent event, saying, 'There's my African American over there,' maybe the Republican was almost being literal about the number of committed supporters he has in the black community."

-- Steve Benen, responding to Trump's astoundingly low poll numbers when it comes to support from black voters.

Debate Baiting

From The New York Times:

Hillary Clinton's advisers are talking to Donald J. Trump’s ghostwriter of “The Art of the Deal,” seeking insights about Mr. Trump’s deepest insecurities as they devise strategies to needle and undermine him in four weeks at the first presidential debate, the most anticipated in a generation. Her team is also getting advice from psychology experts to help create a personality profile of Mr. Trump to gauge how he may respond to attacks and deal with a woman as his sole adversary on the debate stage.

They are undertaking a forensic-style analysis of Mr. Trump’s performances in the Republican primary debates, cataloging strengths and weaknesses as well as trigger points that caused him to lash out in less-than-presidential ways.

Hillary's campaign should also look into pre-debate ways to provoke Trump into saying stupid shit, i.e., do or say something the day of a debate that will cause Donald to lash out during the debate itself.  Trump seems to be particularly susceptible to this kind of baiting:  

“As Donald Trump arrived in Phoenix late Wednesday, fresh from a visit to Mexico City’s presidential palace, he had in his hands a big immigration speech that omitted the usual line that Mexico would have to pay for his proposed wall along the U.S. southern border,” the Wall Street Journal reports.  “Just after landing, though, Mr. Trump discovered that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had tweeted that he had told the Republican presidential nominee during their private meeting earlier that day that his country would refuse to pay for the wall.”

“So Mr. Trump hurriedly inserted a new sentence in his immigration speech, and he soon boomed out from the podium his traditional declaration that the wall would be paid for by Mexico — adding, ‘They don’t know it yet but they’re going to pay for the wall.'”  Said Trump: “I had no choice.”

Trump, in admitting he "had no choice" but to change his speech in response to the Mexican president's tweet, demonstrates that even he realizes he has no self-control when challenged this way.  Needless to say, this is a remarkable admission, especially given that it comes from someone running for President of the United States.

Quote of the Week

"I just didn’t think that a modern American party was capable of suicide. I thought that something would happen, that somebody would think of a way to stop this. And they couldn’t. I think that they wanted to but they couldn’t. And most of the Republicans that I talk to, which are quite a few, they are not so much worried about losing the election as I think they are about losing an entire generation. No one knows how much damage that Trump is going to cause the Republican Party beyond 2016. It is really something, to watch a party just march right over a cliff, and no one can stop them."

-- James Carville