Trump for president sounds like something Democrats would love.
KevinC
4423
Until ISIS does everything they can do hit us with something during the election to make sure Americans elect a “tough guy”.
“I can talk personally about this. I guess it’s kind of the elephant in the room — because my own family, going through what we’re going through today with my son, a combat vet having served in a Stryker brigade fighting for you all, America, in the war zone. But my son, like so many others, they come back a bit different. They come back hardened.”
"They come back wondering if there is that respect for what their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military have given so sacrificially to this country, and that starts at the top. It’s a shame that our military personnel even have to question, have to wonder if they’re respected anymore. It starts from the top. The question, though, it comes from the top, the question, though, that comes from our own president where they have to look at him and wonder, ‘Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we’re trying to do to secure America and to secure the freedoms that have been bequeathed us?’”
“So when my own son is going through what he goes through coming back, I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with, and it makes me realize more than ever, it is now or never for the sake of America’s finest that we’ll have that commander in chief who will respect them and honor them."
Holy shit. She’s said a lot of dumb things in her time, but this may be one of the dumbest.
I have no doubt that Track’s time in service changed him. (I daresay everyone changes a bit from military experience, peacetime or not.) I also believe he could have PTSD.
As a vet, her excuse is insulting on so many levels. Track having PTSD does not absolve him of personal responsibility. It’s not a mental disability free pass to do whatever you want.
Timex
4425
Palin consistently absolves herself and her family of any personal responsibility, which is inherently against the core values of conservatism. And to make matters worse, she preaches to everyone else while her own family is a fucking clowncar of immorality and dysfunction.
But this is really not limited to Palin at all, and is a feature of really all zealots of any political breed. The super-christians who inevitably turn out to be moral deviants, adulterers, pedophiles, etc. (or simply gay, although it always seems to turn out to be some kind of turbo-gay, where they take it to some weird level and instead of just being NORMAL gay, they have gay sex while dressed like animals in a subway bathroom) On the other side you have far left wingers who preach against greed and corporatism, and then end up getting involved in some kind of messed up embezzlement case.
People need to just be cool, and not be dickheads to other folks, and then when they have their own problems they wouldn’t be such a big deal.
JMR
4426
Rumor has it Track (Track? Track. OK then.) has been in and out of trouble all his teenage and adult life so long before Obama and/or the military could mess him up. Most egregious seem to be the vandalism incident when he was 16 and a school bus’ brake lines were cut. And when he and his wife of less than 2 years divorced she was given full custody of the kids which is pretty telling. He got the guns though.
I was amused to hear a quote from Ted Cruz that he believes the Republican establishment is now backing Trump because they don’t think Rubio can win the nomination.
This comes two days after Sarah Palin railed at the Republican establishment at a rally for Trump.
I’m pretty sure they’re all establishment candidates (to some degree) and then hilarity ensues when they all accuse each other of it.
Obama might take his kids, but never his guns!
Well, the “establishment” hate Cruz. Hate him. And it seems they are actually starting to coalesce around Trump.
To be clear, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cruz is right. It’s just funny coming after Palin’s comments. Conservatives in general have a vague understanding of the establishment and what it means.
A surprisingly shrewd analysis from Salon amid all the casual eye-rolling about Republicans. I agree the establishment may think Trump is controllable since he knows so little, and I agree they will probably be dead wrong. (On the other hand, he aligns fairly well with neoconservatism, so would they really care that much?)
It strikes me that Cruz is the ultimate gridlock candidate: a Republican who doesn’t get along with a Republican Congress.
Carly Fiorina is the worst.
Timex
4433
Fiorina, like Carson, how has zero chance of winning.
When you have a surge, like both of them had, and then it recedes? You’re done. That was your shot, folks gave you a look, and they said, “Yeah… no.”
The other candidates like Christie have low poll numbers, but they haven’t yet had a chance at a serious hard look. So they still have a shot. But Fiorina and Carson are done.
Carson’s just in it for the publicity for his books at this point.
Scuzz
4434
I remember in 1980 how much of Europe felt that way about Reagan. Okay, Trump is no Reagan. :)
Nate Silver of 538 finally admits that Trump may end up winning the nomination if things continue as-is.
Things are lining up better for Trump than I would have imagined, however. It’s not his continued presence in the race that surprises me so much as the lack of a concerted effort to stop him.
Lantz
4436
David Wong put numbers to it a while back: http://election.princeton.edu/2016/01/07/does-trumps-ceiling-matter/
Basically there are a lot of ways Trump can get > 50% of delegates with ~30% of the vote due to a bunch of random rules on delegate allocation.
I hate to join in the general 538 backlash, they do seem to be getting more and more lazy as far as hard numbers stuff and have more and more puff pieces claiming a kind of insider/expert knowledge that I really don’t know if they have. Feel like I’m reading some Gawker-empire article half the time.
Wow, if stopping Trump is completely dependent upon the GOP establishment getting its act together, I wouldn’t hold out a lot of hope.
At this point, it seems like the only way for the GOP to potentially get back on course is for Trump to win the primary and then get trounced in the general. I don’t know if both will happen, but if he loses the primary, we’re just looking at the next cycle (assuming a dem win) being even crazier.
To me it’s pretty simple. The GOP views are not close to majority views. They represent the wealthy and business owners, both minority groups. So they have made their bed with the conservative Christian vote, the NRA, and veiled racists to cobble together enough votes to win elections.
Scuzz
4440
If they win elections then don’t (at least at that point in time) they have “majority views”?
But they won’t accept that they’re minority views. They’re constantly blaming it on their candidate being too mainstream. The only chance of beating back the crazy is for it to be unequivocally demonstrated to them in a general election trouncing.
