Mission Accomplished! Wrecking the GOP!
They Almost Had Me!
I was so close! I was almost there! With Mike Pence coming on board, with Rudy Giuliani's fiery speech, with Newt's brilliant performance, I was ready to get behind the guy I have been pounding away at through the entire election cycle. I watched Ted Cruz, in a display of real sportsmanship, put aside Donald Trump's low-class barbs of the primaries. He outlined for the convention those things they must promote in order to win the White House. I was of a mind that if he could go that far to support the party, maybe there was some hope. I was feeling good about the GOP again - for less than a day.
I thought the New York delegation shamed themselves by booing during a very civil and well-delivered speech. I wrote it off as the typical, girlie petulance that Trump has always displayed and inspired in his cult.
But I woke up this morning to hear the campaign has circled the wagons and were having a hissy fit over Cruz not saying, "I endorse Donald Trump." For the moment, we'll put aside what monumental wussies they are. And the fact is Cruz said we needed to support the whole ticket, up ticket and down. For the monumentally stupid, that includes Trump.
The following would have been the winning reaction on the part of the Trump campaign: When asked how they felt about Cruz not directly endorsing Trump by name, they should have said, "Cruz wasn't asked for a direct endorsement. He was cordially invited to speak to the convention and graciously accepted. His presence alone shows that he and Trump have gone past the primary infighting and are ready to take on the Democrat felon. Besides, he did endorse the ticket and the entire down-ticket." (All would have been true, productive, winning statements).
But Noooooo!
Instead, we get Donald Jr. and Paul Manafort helping to create a problem where none existed. And in doing so, even after the primary is over, they are still actively seeking to trash a fellow Republican.
It has been a Trump campaign practice, three or four times a weeks, to get up in the morning and spend at least one day explaining away yesterday's screw ups. And there have been some humdingers. This has been the morning routine every day so far, on the week of the convention. Many people have tried to explain to Trump, both privately and on the air, that if you are explaining what happened yesterday, you are not winning. And the problem is not entirely Trump. His handlers, especially the "brilliant" Paul Manafort have done him a huge disservice in their amateurish performance.
Today just marks one more day of Trump's feet being stuck in the mud, keeping him from taking on his opponents. The campaign has taken a convention that should have been a victory lap and a huge launch for the general election and turned it into a daily circus of unforced errors. And you thought the Clint Eastwood thing was lame.
By the way, is there a normal, non-cult, thinking human being who expected to hear Cruz say, "I endorse Donald J. Trump?" I know I didn't expect it.
The root of all the original rancor, of course, was the per-adolescent behavior of the man Cruz was supposed to have endorsed. Trump insulted Cruz's wife! He suggested a link between Cruz's father and the JFK assassination! Trump was more vociferous in his loony rants about Cruz's citizenship than he had been about Obama's. For months, Trump called Cruz "Lyin' Ted" over things Cruz spoke honestly of, none of those things being issues the candidate has anything to do with anyway. I am sure if that last item was the only issue it would have been forgotten by now. But the first two?...
Why did Trump say Cruz's dad was mixed up with the murder of JFK? Because he saw it on Twitter.
How did he insult Cruz's wife? He saw it on Twitter and added a comment before re-tweeting.
Twitter! That's your presidential candidate, folks! Tweeting like a vindictive middle school girl! Is this presidential material? Is this the guy who is supposed to beat the felon? You haven't seen 1/100th of the pounding the press is about to give Trump. Never mind that I and others have been warning you since last summer that the pounding was coming. When it does, YOU (the Trump supporters) will be crying at how "unfair" the press is.
Well, no shit! The press is mean to Republicans! They go for the jugular! And you, dear Trump-ettes, served up the prefect specimen for the press to dissect. Good job!
Answer this: Who among you lacks dignity to such an extent, that if someone insulted your family in the stupid and public way Trump did, you would still, publicly kiss that someone's ring? That's the kind of ignoble act you'd expect of a Clinton or one of their sycophants. It isn't what honorable adults do.
Our Own Undoing
So we now have a Republican party controlled on one side by two of the Four Morons - Ryan, McConnell, Pelosi and Reid[1. There are other links to the Four Morons of the American Political Apocalypse all over this site.], and on the other by "reality" TV and professional wrestling fans, none of whom could define conservative with a copy of Common Sense in their hands. Nor can their Dear Leader. He truly has no clue what the word means!
There is nothing left of the GOP for an honest conservative to hold onto. Therefore, as of next Monday I will be researching the Conservative and/or Libertarian Party. I may ultimately register as an independent. But I am leaving the sad tatters of what once was the party of Lincoln; the party of Reagan.
As an aside, there is a cute myth surrounding this convention. "You can't fake kids," the speakers are saying. Look at those wonderful children. Donald did such a good job! Well, I've dealt with this one before on this site. But since we are knee deep in the kids thing, and I'll hear comments suggesting I have to believe in Trump because he is such a good father, I'll say it again. The principal complaint against Trump in both his divorces - along with some serious philandering - was that he was NEVER THERE! The evidence is in the very qualities we admire in his sons and daughters, especially their speaking ability. They didn't learn that from him. HE WAS NEVER THERE! Those kids were raised by their mothers or their nannies. That is where they acquired their life skills. It wasn't from the guy who can't string two sentences together without filling the air with tangential white noise. We hear stories of the kids being at the office with "dad". THAT was the quality time. When he was in town, the kids were permitted to hang out in the office. Whoa! Father of the Year!
Matt Jordan is a travel writer, political commentator and author of 16 20 24. Get your SIGNED copy here!
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