Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Pence is right about Russia; Trump … is wrong!

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Mike Pence demonstrated quite nicely just how badly the Republican Party has messed up its campaign for the presidency.

It has put the wrong guy at the top of the ticket.

My belief is based on Pence’s assessment of Russian dictator/strongman/tyrant Vlad Putin. He called him a “small bully” at the vice-presidential debate Tuesday night who must be met with stern resolve and military might.

Trump’s view of Putin? He believes the United States and Russia can become allies in the fight against the Islamic State. “Wouldn’t it be great if we got along with Russia?” Trump has asked. He has expressed admiration for Putin.

Pence doesn’t seem to think U.S.-Russian relations can improve as long as Putin is kicking backsides in the Kremlin.

This is the kind of thing that might have Republicans gnashing their teeth over what their party has done. It has nominated a presidential candidate who is spectacularly clueless on the geopolitical relationships that complicate U.S. foreign policy. Meanwhile, it has a vice-presidential nominee who sees the world through a more realistic prism.

The worst news, for Republicans of course, is that Americans are going to vote next month for the candidates at the top of their respective tickets.

Is Trump really and truly that rich?

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Donald J. Trump does something quite unique — it seems to me — among the filthy rich.

He brags about it. The Republican presidential nominee has been telling us long before he became a politician about how much money he possesses.

Trump boasts about his business acumen. He keeps telling us about the “fantastic” success he has enjoyed. He insists — as he did in the first “debate” with Hillary Clinton — that he isn’t being “braggadocious”; he said he keeps harping on it because America needs a president who “knows something about money.”

Well, as others have asked, do we hear other megazillionaires boast in this manner? Does Warren Buffett tell us about the billions he is worth? Do we hear such things from Bill Gates? Does Jeff Zuckerberg yammer about the billions of bucks in his portfolio?

No.

And this brings me — yet again — to this issue of Trump’s tax returns. He hasn’t released them for public review, claiming that an Internal Revenue Service audit prevents him from releasing them; the IRS said an audit prevents nothing of the sort.

I am among many Americans who wonder just why Trump refuses to do what presidential candidates have done since 1976. The questions are numerous and varied. They center on the tax burden he bears, his relationships with foreign governments, his charitable contributions.

It’s the kind of information that those who have sought to become president of the United States has customarily revealed to those they seek to govern.

My first question is a simple and straightforward one: Do these returns reveal that Trump isn’t nearly as wealthy as he claims to be?

Trump muscles his way into Pence’s big moment

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One more thought on what the nation witnessed Tuesday night … then I’ll move on.

Democratic nominee Tim Kaine and Republican nominee Mike Pence jousted vigorously at their vice-presidential “debate” in Farmville, Va.

They talked a lot about their presidential running mates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

But here’s the deal. Trump decided during the event to start “live tweeting” while his man Pence was on the stage.

I have to agree with the assertion made by media and political commentators about that back story. It was that Trump simply is not wired to stand aside and let his running mate do what was assigned to do. Trump just had to throw his own thoughts out there in real time while his No. 2 guy was talking on national television.

Some GOP strategists thought it only showed that Trump and Pence comprise a political “team” and that Trump merely was lending support to his running mate.

Sure thing.

It’s fair to wonder: What might Trump think of Pence doing that very thing during the upcoming Sunday night joint appearance with Hillary?

Pundit class weighs in on VP debate

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Some of the nation’s more well-known political pundits have weighed in on last night’s vice-presidential “debate.”

They’ve determined, I guess, that Republican nominee Mike Pence did himself more good than harm and that Democratic nominee Tim Kaine did more harm than good for his own future. Many of them seem to think Pence is a shoo-in to run for president in 2020.

I gleaned from most of the comments that the presidential candidates still must make their own way as they slog on through to Election Day.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/who-won-the-vp-debate-pundits-weigh-in/ar-BBx2cfz?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

I’ll offer this slightly different take, though, on what I heard Tuesday night.

Gov. Pence might have helped Donald Trump — if only slightly — by coming off as the more mature, reasonable, rational, nuanced, intelligent member of the GOP ticket.

Thus, he might have given Trump’s base of supporters hope that in the event of a Trump election — a thought that gives me the heebie-jeebies — that there will be a viable individual who’s able to step in once Congress impeaches and convicts the president of crimes that haven’t yet been defined.

Has the governor wooed any independent voters, or undecided Americans to the Trump-Pence ticket? I doubt it. These VP encounters generally don’t prove to be decisive. We still focus on the candidates at the top of their parties’ tickets.

However, given what we know about Trump’s utter lack of anything involving government or the limits of the office he seeks, I remain quite convinced that a President Trump would do something — maybe early in his administration — that would so anger legislators that he could become the target of a serious impeachment effort.

What might he do? Oh, let’s see. He could fire all the flag officers who would assist him in crafting a war strategy against the Islamic State; Trump could issue an unlawful order to his military, which then would be able to refuse to carry it out; he could impose that unconstitutional ban on Muslims entering the United States; he could forget about a business deal that profited from a government subsidy; he could issue any number of illegal executive orders.

The man is a walking, talking, breathing example of an ignoramus who doesn’t understand anything about government — and he intends to learn about it all while serving as head of state of the world’s most powerful nation.

Mike Pence has given a glimmer of hope to Trump’s followers that they would have a grownup ready to take command once the president is tossed out.

It doubt, though, it’s enough to win an election.

I mean, c’mon. Pence still has to find a way to defend Trump’s horrifying stump-speech pronouncements.

Trade policy: the great unspoken at VP debate

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Is it me or did one of Donald J. Trump’s signature issues in this presidential campaign go unnoticed?

I refer to the issue of trade policy.

The Republican presidential nominee has declared ad nauseam that the North American Free Trade Agreement is one of the “worst trade deals in history.” He has opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He has vowed to renegotiate NAFTA immediately upon taking office next January.

Neither of the two men who are running for vice president, Mike Pence and Tim Kaine, talked about trade policy.

In fairness to the candidates, moderator Elaine Quijano of CBS News didn’t ask either of them about trade policy.

The question I would have wanted her to pose would have been to Pence. It would go something like this:

“Gov. Pence, you are a traditional Republican. You served in Congress as a traditional Republican lawmaker and your party has been a free-trade party. Why have you changed your mind on NAFTA and why do you oppose TPP?”

She could have asked Pence that question, but she didn’t.

Pence has a long career as a traditional Republican conservative as a lawmaker and as a governor. Trump has no public service career and he has sounded as populist on trade as, say, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

This debate between Kaine and Pence could have helped clear up some of the confusion on trade that Trump has created with his ferocious opposition to trade policy that many within his party have supported.

Let’s bring on Clinton and Trump again

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Tim Kaine and Mike Pence are still haggling at this moment. Their vice-presidential “debate” has about another 40 minutes to go.

I am not expecting a “You’re no Jack Kennedy” moment.

So, let’s look ahead to next Sunday’s debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

They will have to answer the questions that neither of their running mates have been able to answer.

Is this VP joint appearance going to be decisive? I am not predicting that it won’t, but these No. 2 events rarely — if ever — prove to be deal breakers or deal makers.

Clinton’s post-debate “bounce” has moved her back out to a more comfortable lead in those polls that Trump is fond of heralding — when they’ve leaned in his favor. Is there another Clinton bounce coming after the second joint appearance? That will depend if Trump shows up after actually preparing for the questions that will come his way.

I’m just hoping — as I continue to watch Sen. Kaine and Gov. Pence argue over each other — that Trump raises the issue of Bill Clinton’s marital misbehavior as some kind of disqualifier for his wife’s presidential candidacy.

I also am hoping to hear Hillary’s answer.

Let’s flip these national tickets

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In 1988, a Texan was running for vice president on the Democratic ticket led by Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.

The Texan was U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. The buzz in the Lone Star State was that many Texans wanted Bentsen to be the top man. They much preferred him to Dukakis. There was some of that feeling around the country, too, especially given Bentsen’s performance at the VP debate with then Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana.

“Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy” became one of the signature moments of that campaign as Bentsen skewered Quayle for comparing his Senate experience with what JFK brought to the 1960 presidential campaign.

Well, tonight two more No. 2s are going to square off.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia will joust with Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana. They are their parties’ nominees for vice president.

They’re going to make the top-tier candidates — Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton — the issue tonight.

I wouldn’t be surprised in the least that we are going to hear a lot of lamenting when it’s all over from those who wish that Sen. Kaine and Gov. Pence were leading their respective tickets in 2016

There he goes again … offending veterans

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Donald J. Trump once said his time as a student in a military academy was just like serving in the military.

It damn sure isn’t.

Trump also said U.S. Sen. John McCain earned his war hero status only because he was captured by the North Vietnamese, who then held him as a POW for five years.

Now comes this. He seemed to suggest that combat veterans who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder aren’t as strong as those who don’t suffer from PTSD.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-angers-with-suggestion-that-vets-with-ptsd-are-weak/ar-BBwXHeL?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

This guy needs a reality check.

Veterans groups have listened to Trump’s remarks. They hoped Trump’s comments were “taken out of context.” They discovered that the reporting has been complete.

The vets say that PTSD victims need help and do not need to be told they are “weak or deficient,” according to The Associated Press.

My own father suffered a form of PTSD when he returned home from World War II. I wasn’t yet around, but my mother used to tell me how Dad would flinch at the sound of airplanes … which was a natural reaction for someone who had endured constant aerial bombardment while serving aboard ship in the Navy in the Mediterranean theater.

They called it “shell shock” back then. Dad got through it.

As the son of a combat veteran, well, I take great offense to the implication that the Republican presidential nominee has uttered in relation to this generation of combat vets.

Here’s another spin on the fidelity issue

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I feel the need to put another brief twist to this business about marital infidelity and its emergence as an issue in the 2016 presidential campaign.

For starters, Donald J. Trump’s assertion that Hillary Clinton’s husband’s transgressions disqualify her for high office is ludicrous on its face. Bill Clinton made a mistake in the late 1990s. He got impeached for it; the Senate thought better about tossing him out of office and acquitted him of the charges brought against him.

Hillary’s role? She became the aggrieved wife of the nation’s foremost politician.

OK, but that entire episode spurred another kind of politician.

This was the guy who would boast on the campaign stump, in TV ads, on printed material about how he is faithful to his wife.

“Elect me!” he would say. “I’m a loving husband and devoted father. I believe in the traditional concept of marriage.”

I never could stop wondering: Since when does staying faithful to your sacred marital vows become a bragging point?

Oh, and yes, this kind of phony fealty to marriage does get politicians into some serious trouble. Do you remember former Sen. John Edwards, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate who ran with Sen. John Kerry in 2004? I recall Edwards boasting of his love for his late wife, Elizabeth, while he was cavorting with Rielle Hunter … and with whom he brought a daughter into the world.

It’s all so much crap.

No, Mr. Mayor, ‘everybody’ doesn’t cheat

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Rudolph Guiliani used to be considered one of the great political heroes of the 21st century.

He stood tall amid the ruins of New York City’s financial district in the wake of the 9/11 attack. He became known as America’s Mayor. He rallied his city and, thus, the nation to fight the terrorists who brought such destruction to our shores.

Then he became a crazy man.

His latest bout of lunacy occurred this past weekend with an assertion that “everybody” cheats on their spouse. He was defending Donald J. Trump’s attack on Hillary Clinton — or, more to the point, his attack on Bill Clinton’s misbehavior while he served as president.

He defended Trump’s assertion that Hillary Clinton isn’t faithful to her husband.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/02/politics/rudy-giuliani-infidelity-everybody-does/index.html

Given that marital vows have become an issue in this campaign, I feel the need to remind the mayor that not “everybody” does what he, himself, did to at least two of his wives. He cheated on them. Trump cheated on his first two wives as well.

I know for an absolute fact, moreover, that breaking one’s marital vows of faithfulness is not something that “everybody” does. No need to mention the example I can give of someone who’s never done what Rudy and Donald and, yes, Bill Clinton have done.

Mr. Mayor, here’s some unsolicited advice: Keep your mouth shut when this subject comes up.