Tag Archives: GOP campaign

media news, national news, political news

Trump blackballs Fox … or did Fox blackball Trump?

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 04: Donald Trump and Bill O'Reilly attend the game between the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden on November 30, 2014 in New York City.NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is mad at Fox News.

Fox is mad at Trump.

Trump says he won’t appear on Fox “for the foreseeable future.”

Fox says it has disinvited Trump.

My head is spinning.

Trump vs. Fox News might be the most interesting fight yet in this still-entertaining Republican Party presidential primary campaign.

But here’s something to ponder, even though just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies: Suppose Americans have gone totally insane and actually elect Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. What in the name of all that is holy would a President Trump do whenever some media outlet criticizes a policy decision? Is he going blackball them?

My strong hunch is that a President Trump won’t have any media covering anything he would do.

Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly had it right: “He wants people to like him. When people criticize him, he takes it personally,” the host of “The O’Reilly Factor” said. “So I just think this is just a extension of his reality show, ‘The Apprentice.’ This is just theater right now.”

Actually, Trump’s presidential “candidacy” has been nothing but theater from the moment he announced it.

Given this latest stunt with a major media organization, this man’s presidential candidacy cannot possibly be taken seriously.

national news, political news

Jindal turns up heat on Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures and declares "You're fired!" at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX1GZCO

Now it’s Bobby Jindal who’s taking dead aim at Donald Trump.

The Louisiana governor and fellow Republican presidential candidate calls Trump a “madman” who “must be stopped.”

Holy cow, governor! You’re beginning to sound like, oh, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who fired both barrels at Trump after an earlier round of insults that Trump had loosed on someone.

How much good did Perry’s salvo do? None. He has left the campaign.

Stop the madman

Jindal is declaring, of course, what a lot of American believe about the current GOP front runner. The man is loony.

“Sane conservatives need to stop enabling him,” Jindal wrote in an op-ed published by CNN.

“They need to stop praising him, stop being afraid of him and stop treating him rationally,”

I agree with Gov. Jindal.

His No. 1 concern, though, is this: Will the Republican Party’s primary voters, the base of his party, agree with him or will they rally behind Trump … yet again?

None of the rules that works for conventional politicians is working today.

To be continued …

national news, political news, Uncategorized

Trump: Deport ’em all … now!

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Donald Trump is going to unveil his immigration reform package.

It shouldn’t take long for him to tell us his plans if he is elected president of the United States. As I understand it, the plan will look something like this:

Build a wall and then deport all the undocumented immigrants immediately.

If there is anything that resembles a centerpiece of the Trump campaign, immigration appears to fit that description. He made quite a splash regarding immigrants when he announced his candidacy in June. Mexico, he said, is “sending” criminals to the United States. Murderers, rapists and drug dealers are being sent here. “Some, I assume, are good people,” he added as an afterthought.

Trump said he plan to rescind President Obama’s executive order granting temporary amnesty for as many as 5 million illegal immigrants, which of course has drawn high praise from Republican audiences. “We will work with them. They have to go,” Trump said. “We either have a country or we don’t have a country.”

I have just a couple of thoughts regarding the Trump Immigration Reform Plan.

How much will it cost to build an impenetrable wall across our southern border? Do we have the money?

How does he intend to search for and locate every one of the undocumented immigrants who are living here? And what does he intend to do with the children of those undocumented individuals who were born in the United States and have earned U.S. citizenship just by being born in this country?

And what might Trump propose to do with those individuals who entered the country illegally but who have become successful businessmen and women?

All of this is going to require the detail, nuance and thoughtfulness that’s been missing in Trump’s campaign to date.

Then again, why should he provide it now? Those polls that show the real estate mogul leading the GOP field suggest many of the party’s primary voters don’t care about those things.

 

national news, political news

So long, Rick Perry … already?

Texas Governor Rick Perry, a possible Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential race, answers a question about his indictment in Texas on two felony counts of abuse of power during an appearance at a business leaders luncheon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire August 22, 2014. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW BUSINESS)

The money has dried up.

And in this day in American politics, you need money — I guess — to get your message out. So, with no money coming in, there’s no money to pay staffers at former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign operation.

They’ve become volunteers.

News of this development leaves strangely saddened. It’s not because I think Gov. Perry is the perfect Republican presidential candidate out there. Actually, I think I voted for him one time, when he ran for Texas agriculture commissioner — but that was in 1990 and I’ve slept some since then. The other times? For lieutenant governor and then governor? Not a chance.

My sadness comes in my desire to see him redeem himself from the disastrous 2012 GOP presidential campaign highlighted — or lowlighted, perhaps — by the infamous “oops” moment when he couldn’t name the third of three federal agencies he’d disband if he were elected president.

He came back to this campaign better prepared. But Republican hearts and minds belonged to other candidates.

“As the campaign moves along, tough decisions have to be made in respect to both monetary and time related resources,” Perry campaign manager Jeff Miller said. “Gov. Perry remains committed to competing in the early states and will continue to have a strong presence in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

The “strong presence” will be determined by how well Perry does in those early caucuses and primary elections. That success, of course, depends on how effective a candidate is in getting the message delivered to the voters.

No money, no message.

It doesn’t look good, no matter how you seek to spin it.

 

national news, political news

Pulling for Gov. Perry to make the debate stage

Go, Rick, go!

I want to see former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on the Fox News Channel Republican presidential debate stage next week.

His poll numbers are pretty anemic. Fox says only the Top 10 contenders will take part in the joint appearance.

Perry is on the bubble.

C’mon, Rick. Say something really provocative to boost those poll numbers!

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/perry-scrambles-earn-berth-first-debate/

In truth, my desire is to see if Perry can redeem himself from the 2012 debate debacle in which he said “Oops” upon forgetting the third of three federal agencies he’d cut if he were elected president. The moment produced arguably the most talked-about sound bite of the 2012 GOP primary campaign.

Everyone says Perry is better prepared this time. He’s gotten plenty of rest. He’s boned up on the issues. He’s healthy.

But the GOP faithful doesn’t seem to love him as much as it did four years ago.

It’s not that I actually support Gov. Perry. It’s just that I believe in redemption.

He’s got the chance to redeem himself — but he’s got to show up on that debate stage in Cleveland.

political news

Rodman endorses Trump; the race is over!

Dennis Rodman has endorsed Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States.

That seals it! The contest is now officially over!

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/dennis-rodman-endorses-donald-trump-2016-president-120592.html

The cross-dressing former pro basketball star who once called Kim Jong Un — the North Korean fruitcake/nutcase/dictator — a “friend” of his, has now backed The Donald.

See? I told you this could be the most fun presidential campaign in the history of The Republic.

It looks as though it’s coming true.

media news, national news, political news, Vietnam War

Do the media really hate Trump?

2 Comments

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Bill O’Reilly says the media hate Donald Trump because he doesn’t fear them.

Sure. Trump doesn’t fear the media. I get that.

But do the media really hate this guy? I think not.

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/bill-oreilly-the-media-despise-trump-because-he-124751397551.html

You see, the media get ratings boosts and readership bumps whenever this guy opens his mouth. Now that he’s running for president of the United States of America, the media have to report on the things he says. Most of those things are, well, utter nonsense.

Still, the media have to cover it. The way I see it, the media are doing their job.

It’s fair to ask, perhaps: Do the media have to give so much ink and air time to someone who has zero chance of being nominated by the Republican Party, let alone elected president of the United States? I think so. He’s polling quite well at the moment, grabbing an estimated 20-plus percent approval in a field of what seems like hundreds of GOP presidential candidates.

However, most of us — I think — realize that none of this is about Trump actually becoming president. It’s about Trump liking the sound of his own voice.

Are the media seeking to “punish” Trump because he’s such a blowhard? O’Reilly thinks they are: “(T)he media believe they need to punish Mr. Trump for being disrespectful and not cowering before them. Plus they don’t like his politics, generally speaking.”

It’s not just the media who are being critical, Bill-O. His fellow Republican candidates have fired plenty of ammo at Trump for the purely idiotic things he’s said, notably about many of them — not to mention what he’s said about one-time GOP presidential nominee and, yes, Vietnam War hero John McCain.

I don’t think there’s media “hate” at play.

The longer Trump keeps popping off, the more the media have to cover him. In this strange and wacky world where pop culture intersects with public policy, the media will keep reaping the benefit.

Keep blathering, Donald.

political news

Trump won’t apologize? Shocking, I’m tellin’ ya

Donald Trump says he won’t apologize for denigrating John McCain’s service during the Vietnam War.

He won’t say he’s sorry for telling an audience in Iowa that McCain’s status as a war hero is “only because he was captured. I prefer people who weren’t captured.”

He won’t take back the statement that has offended other military veterans — not to mention those who also were captured by enemy forces and subjected to torture, not just in Vietnam but in all wars dating back to World War II.

This digging in by Trump perhaps might the most unsurprising aspect of the firestorm that has erupted on the 2016 presidential campaign trail.

You see, to apologize means that the person doing the apologizing needs to feel shame for what he or she said.

Donald Trump is shameless to the max. His sole purpose in making outrageous statements is to get people talking about him.

I consider Trump to be a political buffoon and an embarrassment to the Republican Party, whose presidential nomination he’s seeking.

However, I do not think he’s a stupid man. I am quite certain he knows precisely what he’s saying and he expects precisely the reaction he gets when he says these things.

Should he take back what he said about Sen. McCain — the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee? Of course he should.

First, though, he’s got to reveal some shame.

I do not expect him to do that. Neither should anyone else.

national news, political news

Goldberg gets it about The Donald

Donald Trump is taking fire not just from liberals but from conservatives.

Amazing, if you ask me.

OK, you didn’t ask, but I’ll offer my opinion anyway.

The latest broadside comes from Jonah Goldberg, who I consider to be one of the better, smarter conservative pundits around. I always enjoy reading his world view, even though I generally disagree with it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421045/donald-trump-fraud

But where it regards The Donald, well, young Jonah is on point. You need to read his essay here. If you’re in the right frame of mind, as I happened to be when I read, you’ll laugh out loud. No kidding!

Here’s a tiny bit of what he wrote:

“… what I find so gaudy about Trump is his constant reference to the fact that he made a lot of money, and his expectation that it somehow makes him immune to criticism or means that he’s a better person than his GOP competitors, never mind yours truly.”

I’ve already taken note of Trump’s continual references to how rich he is. Some of my own critics have wondered if I’m envious of his wealth. No. I’m not.

His yammering about his wealth — which some have suggested isn’t nearly as immense as he says it is — simply drives me crazy. One more tidbit from Goldberg: “He’s a bore who overcompensates for his insecurities by talking about how awesome he is, often in the third person. Jonah can’t stand that.”

And yet, in this wacky world of ours, his boastfulness is getting traction by those who think it all translates into leadership.

Another key point in Goldberg’s essay is how thin-skinned Trump is, how he bristles at criticism. Trump has fired back at his critics, such as Goldberg, which puzzles the young columnist, who wondered why someone who considers himself to be “master of the Universe” would get upset anything anyone said about him.

We’ve clearly entered a new age, or perhaps been transported without our knowledge into a parallel political universe.

The behavior that The Donald is exhibiting is precisely the kind of thing that in another time would have resulted in his being laughed off the political stage. The prancing and preening he does would be grist for ridicule from serious politicians.

These days they’re taking this guy seriously.

And with good reason. The Donald is at or near the top of every public opinion poll of Republican voters.

I believe Jonah Goldberg has a point: The Donald’s fans need an intervention.

national news, political news

Trump: grand marshal of the clown parade

1 Comment

Donald Trump decided during his 45-minute presidential campaign announcement speech to trash as many groups of people and individuals as he could.

Well done, Donald.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/donald-trump-mexicans-comment-119100.html?hp=rc4_4

I’ll admit that I didn’t have the stomach to sit through the entire speech, but my favorite part occurred when he dissed Mexicans.

Immigrants are coming into the country to rape, murder and steal from Americans. He said that “I’m sure good people” are coming as well, adding the “good people” reference almost as an afterthought.

He thinks conservative columnist/TV pundit Charles Krauthammer is “overrated.” He trashed all his Republican rivals as being half-hearted and afraid to speak the truth.

As this campaign unfolds, though, I’m waiting anxiously for the Birther in Chief — Trump — to raise the issue of Sen. Ted Cruz’s legitimacy as a candidate, just as continues to do with the current president, Barack Obama.

Cruz was born in Canada; his father is Cuban, his mother is American. Thus, he’s an American citizen by birth — just like President Obama, except that the president was born in one of the 50 United States of America.

Will The Donald suggest that Ted Cruz is not qualified to run for, let alone serve as president?

Gosh, I hope he does — and then reveals why he deserves to be in the lead car in the Parade of Clowns.