“They’ll say ‘he was rambling.’ I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy. You know, I’m really smart. I don’t ramble.”
—Donald Trump
I’d been having a vague sense of easiness—the opposite of uneasiness—lately, but couldn’t quite pinpoint it until esteemed former colleague Matt Bai nailed it in The Washington Post last week:
I’ve called Donald Trump a lot of things over the last eight years — reckless, callous, nativist, rageful, shameless and even adventurous, which was actually a compliment. But here’s something new and unexpected.
Suddenly, Trump is kind of boring.
I don’t mean boring in the pragmatic sense of: I’ve decided to tamp down the crazy, act like a normal candidate and let the spotlight fall on my very flawed opponent. No, I mean boring like Greenpeace protests and rental cars. Boring as in same old. Played out. Predictable.
Absolutely spot on. I’ve watched two Trump “press conferences” in the past weeks and found them snoozers. Not that he wasn’t trying. But the same-old hurl of epithets, interrupted by listless attempts to read from the teleprompter, just seems desperate and, well, empty these days: socialist, communist, stupid, left-wing. radical, California, cackling, race-chameleon etc. Ho-hum. The standard-issue lies about whining the last election. His recent conflation of insane asylums and asylum seekers is clever—but what ever happened to building that wall? And now, he’s trying out the absolutely ridiculous notion that Joe Biden—who stepped aside voluntarily—was overthrown in a coup. So says the man who actually attempted a coup with the fake electors scheme in 2020. But then, Trump has always been 97% projection—crooked Hillary, crooked Joe Biden…Trump is, palpably, the most crooked President in American history, using his position to flagrantly enhance his family’s wealth. It is all so crashingly last cycle.
Which doesn’t mean he’s a loser in 2024, even if he’s acting like one. Politics—as we’ve seen in the last month—can turn on a dime. But I suspect Trump is entering the most frightening week of his political life. The Democrats will unveil a roster of orators in Chicago that will cast dark shade on the Republican show in Milwaukee. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will make Hulk Hogan look like the sententious fool he is. Beyonce will trash Lee Greenwood. But most important, Kamala and Tim will transcend the most tired, faded aspect of Trumpery: they will be optimistic and joyful. Trump’s pessimism—his unpatriotic darkness about our country—just seems so played out nowadays.
The Democrats had a great Republican convention last month. They stepped all over Donald Trump’s martyr story (as did Trump himself with that endless and awful speech). They didn’t plan it, but the Biden drama—will he drop out or won’t he?—was bigger news than anything the Republicans could offer. They squashed any bump Trump might have had post-convention.
The question is, how will Trump try to steal the spotlight this week? Democracy dies in darkness, it is said; Trump has paroxysms of evil mania when languishing in the shadows. He will be desperate to steal the show. He will, I fearlessly predict, go where no presidential candidate has gone before, lower…and then lower still in search of some headlines. He will not lose any of his hard core lemmings, but here’s the real danger: Kamala Harris is a woman. Trump doesn’t know how to deal with women, except to, you know, grab them by…well, you know. But women, moderate-conservative suburban women are where this election will be won or lost. There is a red line—call it the Nikki Haley line—Trump dare not cross in slagging Harris. I’m not sure exactly where it is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if, in his desperation to escape the news-shadows this week, he crosses it and says something terminally, mortally stupid.
This assumes the Dems continue to play smart and bland. This assumes they trot out a prime-time series of patriots and veterans who don’t like to be called suckers by Agent Orange. (Really looking forward to what Governor Wes Moore, formerly of the 82nd Airborne, has to say.) This assumes they don’t get too deep in the policy, or identity, weeds. This assumes they emphasize the utter Americanness of multi-racial identities. (Intermarriage is up 276% in the past decade!) This assumes they celebrate America and sideline the left-wing doom-and-gloomers who, in truth, belong to the same identity-politics party as Trump. This assumes Chicago doesn’t blow up.
Lot of assumptions there. But I’ve spent a lifetime watching Democrats squander big opportunities. Trump has handed them another. We’ll see if they can take advantage.
Joe it is obvious that the real issue is that you just aren’t intelligent enough to understand President Trump. You have to be an idiot to quote the lying moron’s at the Worthless comPost or to continue to lie that there wasn’t widespread election fraud in 2020 or to lie that Trump made money from government grift when he has actually lost $millions being President and that Beijing Biden and crooked Hillary aren’t two of the most corrupt politicians in history.
Cackling Kamala isn’t even capable of extemporaneous speech and hasn’t held a press conference since she announced her Presidential candidacy, what is that 28 days ago. President Trump spoke at a 90 minute rally with the teleprompter not working, had an exceptional two hour conversation without edit with Elon Musk and has held numerous impromptu news conferences which are all beyond Harris’s diminutive communication abilities. Trump was interviewed at the NABJ and Harris was a no-show, obviously knowing she wasn’t capable. BTW, I found watching Rachel Scott of ABC news trying to ambush and go toe to toe with the greatest political counter puncher in history to be hilarious. The organizers should have called the 3 knockdown rule. ;-)
So Joe it’s also obvious that you don’t have anywhere near the public speaking capability of President Trump and so you must be jealous. But no matter how much you losers in the democrat party propaganda media try to gaslight and carry the water for the democrat’s communist candidates only voters at the bottom of the IQ curve are going to believe you. It will not be enough.
I foresee a joyful and celebrity-filled convention. I think Orangeman will blow a gasket and accuse Kamala of treason, and the press will enjoy the ratings bump. But it starts to get real and serious after Labor Day.