June 22, 2015--TRUMP & Clinton
Not that Clinton but Bill. They have much in common--Bill and The Donald.
I continue to find it difficulty to stop making fun of Donald TRUMP. I can't resist referring to him as The Donald, his first wife Ivana's charming and prescient name for him, or capitalizing his last name since he insists on doing that when he affixes his name in faux-gold to TRUMP Tower, TRUMP Plaza, TRUMP City, TRUMP Casino, and his line of TRUMP menswear and perfume.
But ask any other Republican presidential candidate and they are no longer laughing at his outsized ego and birds-nest hairdo. The are not laughing since he has soared into the lead on all credible national polls. Leading Jeb Bush by at least two percentage points--16% to 14%--is typical.
And he has surged into the lead after what media savants thought was a fatal gaff--questioning, worse, mocking John McCain's service record.
McCain, though a mediocre presidential candidate, is a genuine hero, having been shot down over North Vietnam and held for six years in the hellacious Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp. He even elected to remain in captivity after the Vietcong offered early release a year before the Paris Peace Accords called for prisoner exchanges.
When confronted about his swipes at McCain and pressed to talk about his own war record he doubled down on criticizing McCain and then casually said he had a number of student deferments (five), then a medical condition (he couldn't remember just what), and he didn't support the war anyway.
This should have doomed his candidacy since it appears that a disproportionate percentage of his supporters are military hawks. But it didn't. His numbers actually rose. And thus his rivals consternation.
He even got in potential trouble last week in Iowa among evangelical Christians.
He is admittedly not a worshipful guy and was never born again. In fact, he has had three wives and many affairs. All on the record. He even said in Iowa, when discussing his romantic life (if I can call it that), that if his daughter Ivanka wasn't his daughter he would be dating her. Rather than getting booed off the stage, the huge audience of Iowans guffawed with guilty pleasure.
They appear to love him the more outrageous he gets. And thus far he hasn't spent very much of his own money on his galloping campaign.
What then am I suggesting about Bill Clinton?
He was another larger-than-life personality and supplied the public with daily doses of salacious gossip from canoodling Gennifer Flowers to Paula Jones to Monica Lewinsky.
Like TRUMP, the more he got tangled in his own lies and the more scandalous the news that oozed out, the more popular he became. When he left the White House, impeached and nearly convicted and thrown out of office by the Senate, his approval ratings rose to an astonishing 73 percent.
The public likes cartoon-like figures and is as interested in being entertained by its leaders as well led. Perhaps more so. People have given up on political and government effectiveness. They see most of our problems to be too big to solve. Poll after poll shows this.
Who better then than a TRUMP or a Clinton to keep us titillated and amused? Jeb Bush? Hillary? Scott Walker? That's an easy one--the Teflon Kids.
I continue to find it difficulty to stop making fun of Donald TRUMP. I can't resist referring to him as The Donald, his first wife Ivana's charming and prescient name for him, or capitalizing his last name since he insists on doing that when he affixes his name in faux-gold to TRUMP Tower, TRUMP Plaza, TRUMP City, TRUMP Casino, and his line of TRUMP menswear and perfume.
But ask any other Republican presidential candidate and they are no longer laughing at his outsized ego and birds-nest hairdo. The are not laughing since he has soared into the lead on all credible national polls. Leading Jeb Bush by at least two percentage points--16% to 14%--is typical.
And he has surged into the lead after what media savants thought was a fatal gaff--questioning, worse, mocking John McCain's service record.
McCain, though a mediocre presidential candidate, is a genuine hero, having been shot down over North Vietnam and held for six years in the hellacious Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp. He even elected to remain in captivity after the Vietcong offered early release a year before the Paris Peace Accords called for prisoner exchanges.
When confronted about his swipes at McCain and pressed to talk about his own war record he doubled down on criticizing McCain and then casually said he had a number of student deferments (five), then a medical condition (he couldn't remember just what), and he didn't support the war anyway.
This should have doomed his candidacy since it appears that a disproportionate percentage of his supporters are military hawks. But it didn't. His numbers actually rose. And thus his rivals consternation.
He even got in potential trouble last week in Iowa among evangelical Christians.
He is admittedly not a worshipful guy and was never born again. In fact, he has had three wives and many affairs. All on the record. He even said in Iowa, when discussing his romantic life (if I can call it that), that if his daughter Ivanka wasn't his daughter he would be dating her. Rather than getting booed off the stage, the huge audience of Iowans guffawed with guilty pleasure.
They appear to love him the more outrageous he gets. And thus far he hasn't spent very much of his own money on his galloping campaign.
What then am I suggesting about Bill Clinton?
He was another larger-than-life personality and supplied the public with daily doses of salacious gossip from canoodling Gennifer Flowers to Paula Jones to Monica Lewinsky.
Like TRUMP, the more he got tangled in his own lies and the more scandalous the news that oozed out, the more popular he became. When he left the White House, impeached and nearly convicted and thrown out of office by the Senate, his approval ratings rose to an astonishing 73 percent.
The public likes cartoon-like figures and is as interested in being entertained by its leaders as well led. Perhaps more so. People have given up on political and government effectiveness. They see most of our problems to be too big to solve. Poll after poll shows this.
Who better then than a TRUMP or a Clinton to keep us titillated and amused? Jeb Bush? Hillary? Scott Walker? That's an easy one--the Teflon Kids.
Labels: 2016 Presidential Race, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, John McCain, National Polls
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:04 AM
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