Friday, September 18, 2015

Stick a Fork in Trump




Since the beginning of the campaign I've said the time will come when voters, even the narrow-minded hateful troglodytes who've heretofore propelled Donald Trump's Cinderella campaign to the top of the polls, will tire of his shallow speeches, empty promises and incendiary rhetoric. Simultaneously, Republican voters with brains will rise up off the couch and begin to take a serious interest in the election. And that's when Trump turns back into a pumpkin. That time is now. 

The second Republican debate is where history will point to the official end of Trumpalooza, a circus-like campaign that actually died the moment it began, with the candidate's controversial "Mexican rapists" speech. Wednesday's contest served as a real eye-opener to voters, in particular, the sane ones who've finally realized, 'Holy shit, if I don't get behind someone else right now this hateful racist misogynist could be nominated!'

Trump faced three solid hours of substantive challenges on everything from his lack of expertise on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues to his ad hominem attacks on everyone from Carly Fiorina to Jeb Bush's wife. When the discussion turned to Iran, Russia and Syria, Trump looked like a pathetic deer in the headlights. "I'd give Putin a call..." is all he could offer when asked about how'd he'd address the Russian president's support of Syria's Bashar al-Assad. That's his answer for everything: 'I'll give 'em a call, and because I'm the amazing Trump, they'll listen." Goodbye war, terrorism and world hunger!

And now The Donald is embroiled in yet another foot-in-mouth controversy, this time for failing, unlike John McCain in the 2008 campaign, to correct a supporter at a New Hampshire town hall rally Thursday who said: "We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims. You know our current president is one. You know he's not even an American." Trump, instead of pulling a McCain--"No sir, he's not, he's a good Christian and an American"--turned to the crowd, chuckled and mocked, "We need this question? This is the first question!"

Glossing over the racist comment entirely, Trump responded with a typically superficial assurance: "We're going to be looking at a lot of different things. You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We're going to be looking at that and many other things.

Stick a fork in Trump. He's about as done as piece of burnt coffee shop toast. His debate performance, or lack thereof, put on high-def display his myriad failings, from his persistent combativeness, race-baiting and misogyny to his utter lack of substance, policy positions and moral authority. 

Next week polls will surely indicate a reversal in momentum for Trump. From this point forward it's all downhill, and just a matter of time before he's out of the race.

1 comment:

Private said...

Why must Trump explicitly correct a questioner? He obviously rejected the premise of the question by indicating that he didn't need questions like the one posed. Why weren't you bothered when Obama didn't stand up in church and challenge Reverend Wright when he spouted his ugliness each and every Sunday? What about Hillary saying Obama wasn't a Muslim "as far as she knew"? Face it Andy - your a partisan who just wants to slam the opposition, right, wrong or otherwise.