Trump responded on a higher level of generality, with the idea that Hillary was going low and he was choosing not to follow her. He had some great low material, but he wouldn't use it, and her use of it wasn't nice. He wanted to be nice. That fit with something he said to her very early on in the debate: "I want you to be very happy. It’s very important to me."
After the debate — with a lot of people talking about Machado and giving her air time — he got specific:
Mr. Trump has acknowledged pressuring her to lose weight, saying it was her job as Miss Universe to remain in peak physical shape. On Tuesday morning, he made no apologies for that.I said what I had to say on the subject last May:
“She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem,” he told Fox News.
What was Donald Trump supposed to do about that? He owned the business, and she had claimed — and beat out other women for — the job of acting as if she's the most beautiful woman in the universe, and then she radically changed her appearance....
Wasn't she obligated to control her weight according to the terms of employment? If you can't do the job, don't apply for it. No one has to enter a beauty pageant. I think it's a foolish business, but if you participate in foolishness, you owe something to those who gave you that platform. It takes some psychological grit. If you're sensitive about what people say about how you look, what are you doing there?
This is another example of anti-Trump media purporting to champion women but in fact treating them as if they are weak, fragile, not responsible for their own choices, and in need of protection. It seems to me that Trump was treating her the way he'd treat a man — holding her to her obligations and razzing her for her foibles.
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It's only a weapon to the extent Hillary is trying to lock up the fat chick vote. Which I suspect she already has that anyway. Thin or regular sized women are incredibly cruel towards women who aren't so it's possible they might pay lip service to how offended they are by Trump's comments but they won't really mean it. They would have reveled in how Miss Universe porked up and looked horrible. And all the men in the world would agree with Trump. So as weapons go it's not much of one.
Is it nice or right to use? Sure, why not. He did say those things. As the man once said, politics ain't beanbag.
What about Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping?
We knew Trump had baggage - yet we chose him. We know Trump isn't articulate and he is poor at batting this nonsense away by pointing out Hillary's bigger crimes. The order of magnitude of Hillary's corrupt behavior makes Trump's past sins a big nothing. Trump needs to get out of Hannity's echo chamber and figure this out or it just proves he doesn't want to win.
Remember when Trump shut it all down after he reminded everyone that Bill is a rapist? It's time to go there again.
Also -we need a constant drum beat of - why won't Hillary release her Goldman Sachs transcripts? Where did the 30,000 e-mail go? Bleach-bit? seriously? Smashed blackberries? Seriously? Her entire staff took the 5th? Seriously? and on &... Never. Stop. Screwing. Her.
Instead of playing it smart, Trump gets in his own ego-head about it and makes it worse for himself. It's not too late to learn, and change - but we've been hoping Trump will learn and change for a while now, and meanwhile, the clock it running out.
I don't think women who are heavy will be all that sympathetic to a beauty contest winner either.
It sound like Trump tried to be as gentle as he could, but it's a business. A superficial business, based on a superficial contest among superficial people who are expected to adhere to certain superficial standards.
The left are good at taking nothing and making it something. She has the entire elite media and hollywood on her side to make stupid stuff like this matter.
Alicia Machado was a hottie back in the day, although she did get too big for her britches for awhile, at least by Miss Pageant standards. She should thank Trump for her acting, singing, and reality-TV career, which was greatly accelerated by the Universe title.
Just back from the Trump rally in Council Bluffs. His Iowa coordinator, Tanya Gertz, first met Trump on his TV show. She told the story about recently meeting a former Miss Wisconsin. Ten years ago she was sick and hospitalized. Trump personally sent her a note wishing her to get well so she could compete. Miss Wisconsin told Gertz that his note meant very much to her and she remembered it from ten years ago.
That's the private and kind Trump that the public doesn't see.
As to the former Miss Universe, she probably breached her contract. Anyone look into that? As if this ancient Miss Universe matter is important in selecting the future Commander-in-Chief.
Check Power Line for my report or here as AA deconstructs my text with her patented cruel neutrality.
Althouse,
Exactly. But doing/saying the correct/defensible thing in context is no defence in today's politics.
Politics have become nothing more than scoring points to buck up the morale of "our" side. Fuck any serious discussion of any issue that might actually advance or sink our republic (to the extent one exists any longer).
I'm now on the next audiobook of essays by Jonathan Franken.
But today, during my commute home from work, I snapped it off, annoyed, because I could take no more of his comparing and contrasting himself to Robinson Crusoe.
The man hasn't got the tiny, dried-up, shriveled little balls to admit that he desperately wants to believe that writing will be the love he so desperately needs.
Wild guess here: In school, he avoided all the math and science he possibly could.
It's not as if Democrats have any standards at all, other than the double standard.
"I'm now on the next audiobook of essays by Jonathan Franken."
Thanks for reading a book I recommended.
I know you mean Franzen.
Stephen said...
What about Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping?
It's called rough and tumble. It's crude and insulting and by design. The woman had a responsibility and did not live up to it and (apparently) did not take it seriously when called on the carpet. Fame and beauty do not give a free pass from criticism, even harsh and politically incorrect criticism.
It was unwise for Trump to say, particularly from the retrospective view of a political campaign. But the lady wanted to play in the big time by trading on her considerable beauty. She won and had an obligation to maintain that image while she was the incumbent winner. What did she expect? That the person who risked large sums to create the vehicle for her fame should just ignore her irresponsibility?
AprilApple: "...The order of magnitude of Hillary's corrupt behavior makes Trump's past sins a big nothing." Thank you.
In the usual terminology, this beauty queen stuff is a SQUIRREL! OVER THERE! ELEVENTY!
It has exactly nothing to do with anything serious. I say that with confidence even though I think one can learn a good deal about somebody by watching how s/he treats the help. Here? Trump had a business, he expected his partners and employees to perform so the business could succeed, she apparently failed, he cajoled and pushed her to do her job. Maybe he could have fired her instead?
He's a pragmatist. To a fault, perhaps.
Trump bargained for a beauty queen. He got a chunkette. Marchado is lucky he didn't bring an action in replevin about her, like Rose 2d of Aberlone. See Sherwood v. Walker.
Alicia Machado had more than weight problems; the woman is a train wreck.
Stephen said...
What about Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping?
So far both of those are only accusations/assertions by Alicia Machado.
The only reference from back then found so far, that I know of, is in this one from 1997 where she says,
"Aside from the pain of getting called "Miss Piggy," a 24-pound weight gain during her reign was great for her career, Venezuela's former Miss Universe insists."
But it never says who called her that, could have been the press.
It would be nice to see a celebrity not be such a jerk.
Being called "Miss Piggy" is apparently the least of her problems.
First, didn't Hillary basically say this lady was her "adopted Hispanic daughter" or something? Or what she wanted her hispanic daughter to be?
Second, apparently this lady 1) is a hardcore porn star; 2) had a baby with some drug lord; 3) assisted in a murder attempt of a judge.
And that's the very least of it. Glad to know Hillary's daughters are assassins.
--Vance
"The left are good at taking nothing and making it something."
That friend of Hillary will blow up in her face. She is a mess.
This brief little video shows him talking about the obesity problem in a very sensible way
Meanwhile, Miss Machado is cheering him on and obviously enjoying his sense of humor and excited about doing her workouts to get back in shape. How is this fat-shaming?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpXsAoXZIMg
Stephen said...
What about Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping?
9/28/16, 5:54 PM
Better than "no one could accuse her of being the size of the universe. But as her universe expanded, so did she, putting on nearly 60 pounds." (That was CNN saying she expanded like the universe, not Trump.)
"Some people when they have pressure eat too much. Like me. Like Alicia," said Donald Trump, the executive producer of the Miss Universe Pageant.
Since winning the crown, the former Miss Venezuela went from 118 pounds to -- well -- a number that kept growing like the size of the fish that got away.
Because one snide comment about her weight wasn't enough.
Rumors also surfaced that she might be forced to give up her Miss Universe crown.
But Trump, as co-owner of rights to the pageant, said he would never let that happen. "We had a choice of: termination or do this," he said. "We wanted to do this."
I thought it was interesting that when Clinton said Alicia Machado is now a U.S. citizen and is going to vote she didn't say, "will vote for me".
My favorite aspect of the Miss America contest (though this story is about Miss Universe) is that they insist it's not a beauty contest, it's a "scholarship pageant"--because some of the prizes awarded are scholarships. By that logic, if the prize were an automobile, it would be a car show.
I think the media will be dropping this thing like a hot potato.
At first I thought they'd tie it around Trump's neck, but considering a few things.
1) She claims he called her Miss Piggie, but there is no evidence he did, just her word.
2) She admits she is no saint, when she is asked if she helped her boyfriend get away with murder, in other words, she doesn't deny it.
3) She herself was involved in fat shaming. She was in a spanish comedy where she wears a fat suits and gets lot's of laughs for being fat.
4) The only Miss Universe to do porn, have sex, on camera, during a reality tv show.
5) She has a Mexican Drug Lord baby daddy who is currently serving time. Which leads me to ask, is she the go between with the cartels and Clinton? Are they funneling money to her? Is this why she doesn't want to build a wall or control immigration, because she is paid off?
Yeah, this doesn't look good for Hillary, being friends with this lady.
And let's not forget the final nail in the coffin. Two media sources interviewed and did background on this lady the night BEFORE the debates, thus telling us their is media coordination with the Hillary campaign and their Trump smears. Shameful.
If anyone has ever seen the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader auditions.. Well snowflakes need not apply.
With Ms. Machado's post Miss Universe career (although she did look good nude in Mexican Playboy) she is not a saint. There are a lot of things blown around the Clintons, and it looks like they blew big money on bad oppo research here.
Shake it off Hillary!
Best Twitter Comment today (from a beautiful woman, for what it's worth):
If you don't want men to judge your body,
maybe you shouldn't enter contests where men judge your body.
@ Michael K Good one. Where would we be without the Guardian? Clinton knows how to pick'em. Bill was probably in on the decision to use her (anyway he could think of?).
They have such a low opinion of women, to think this is what we vote on.
Not on the economy, taxes, foreign policy, freedoms, or budget. But on a woman who lives her life being judged for her looks, getting judged on her looks. *That's* what is insulting to women.
Wow, we are having an election for the most powerful position in the world and an important issue is about a tramp. Always seeking to strive downward.
She was in breach of her contract, and she was losing endorsements because of her weight. Trump said he could have fired her, but chose to deal with it this way. Had she been fired, she would have been consigned to a footnote on the ash heap of history. Instead, she has had a pretty successful career. And, when Megyn Kelly asked her if she had any corroboration of the Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping comments, she tap danced around it then basically said no.
A better question would be how a woman with her history gets a US citizenship - driving the getaway car for her murderer boyfriend and threatening to kill a judge.
What do I care about some skank who hangs with narco-terrorists?
No one has to enter a beauty pageant. I think it's a foolish business, but if you participate in foolishness, you owe something to those who gave you that platform.
Side issue, beauty pageants are watched by women, not men; and it seems to me it ties to an interest in fashion that's typical of women, not men.
A beauty pageant is women celebrating their physical attractiveness to men, if you want to make it non-foolish.
Iowahawk said that nothing goes with a Make America Great Again hat better than a No Fat Chicks tee-shirt.
This is another example of anti-Trump media purporting to champion women but in fact treating them as if they are weak, fragile, not responsible for their own choices, and in need of protection.
That's the way men treat women, at bottom. Women change their minds, men adapt to what they say they want.
Feminism is another example, and not a refutation.
The getaway attempt was foiled when she drove the car through a McDonald's drive-thru to pick up a couple of McRibs and a supersize fries.
You're probably right. But foolishness works two ways and Trump purchased this enterprise and ran it according to its foolish nature. He doesn't get absolved for trearing women like garbage because he invested in a business whose purpose is to treat women like garbage.
"Treating"
I think the greater scandal is Hillary choosing a woman with such a background for outreach to the Hispanic community. Still, I didn't know any of this until just now when I read the comments. Hillary will probably drop her, but Ms Machado charges against Trump have gotten far more publicity than her rather shady background. If it works, it works......That's why it helps to have the media in your side. No late nite comic will make fun of Ms. Machado 's fondness for food and drug lords. ......Trump could have quietly dropped her at the time of her weight gain. I think he chose to publicize her weight problems for the show biz potential. It worked. She became more famous and the Miss Universe pageant became better known. Win win for everybody.......The problems that Venezuela and Mexico are facing have nothing o do with Donald Trump. Ms. Machado, on the other hand, is intimately connected to their problems.
Trump should say his accuser is a train wreck, leave it at that, then point out whatever hurt he caused doing his job 20 years ago pales in comparison to how Clinton has exposed Machado to ridicule in contriving this sleazy attack campaign.
Sally327 said...
It's only a weapon to the extent Hillary is trying to lock up the fat chick vote. Which I suspect she already has that anyway."
Anyone ask Monica's opinion?
"...pales in comparison to how Clinton has exposed Machado to ridicule in contriving this sleazy attack campaign."
I could be totally wrong, but my gut tells me that Machado is more of a DJT than an HRC. That is, she's probably more into the sort of limelight seeking that leads someone to conclude that any press is good press.
I'm guessing that however this shakes out between DJT, HRC, and the fat chick: the fat chick will have made the biggest net-advancement.
Ann said in earlier post..." I think it's a foolish business, but if you participate in foolishness, you owe something to those who gave you that platform."
Ann nailed it last time. Not much else to say, so I won't.
So far the media have not dropped it though they all have to trust each other to not break the silence about her past. That part is amazing to watch.
This was not bad oppo research. The campaign knew all about her and I suspect the journalists who are going with this story do too. What they all know that we don't is that this was supposed to be a story that dropped the weekend before the election. Then the bad past history wouldn't matter because by the time it hit publicly, not just internet but public-public, the election would be over.
That they dropped it now says they were worried about the polls and the health issue since the media has been working with them on this for a week before the debate. That puts the start of the work on it to just after the "fainting" video and before the "crazy eyes" Philly speech video.
This is the best Hillary has.
The election is going to be a rout.
In the rope-a-dope strategy, we're still in the rounds where Donald Trump lays back into the ropes while he appears to get pummeled.
Trump will have the edge by bringing Flowers...mock debates don't help...Clinton's too sick to stand for 90 minutes...Moderator a Democrat...Clinton fed questions...Trump's mic defective...Trump thinking of Chelsea...Miss Universe deserved what Trump did to her....Drudge readers overwhelmingly voted Trump the winner....
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt
Trump is a wielder, not to be confused with being a welder.
Folks want a wielder, not a welder.
--
Yo, Althouse:
Have I gotten pithy enough for you? Yet, I mean.
So...
Ms. Machado recently became a US citizen. Which means she was made a Permanent Resident sometime in the last 10 years or so. Let's guess 6. When her friend ran the State Department. I mean, how does a woman accused of threatening to kill a judge and being the getaway driver in an attempted murder get Permanent Resident status.
Maybe Althouse can't see this through her Trumpist lens, but just maybe Trump could have actually not taken the bait? Maybe brushed the thing off as "look, I was running a beauty contest at the time and trying to uphold the standards of the business, my comments were taken out of context, let's move on to something relevant". But I guess dragging this topic out is just too important for the Trump project.
We all know Hillary is going to "go low". We're not meeting the Clintons for the first time. Hell, one of the selling points Trumpists made in the primaries is that he could more than handle someone nasty like Clinton. This crap isn't "handling" her, it's playing right into her hands.
Consider where Trump drew some blood on Monday--talks of trade agreements and Hillary's lack of accomplishments. He only briefly hit on those in the debate, and could have hammered on her more (and she'd have had little to come back with). Instead, this is flooded over by more nonsense like this.
"The left are good at taking nothing and making it something. She has the entire elite media and hollywood on her side to make stupid stuff like this matter."
Yes, but with an assist from the GOP candidate and his followers.
The race will be won by whoever makes the election about their opponent. Hint--this Machado woman is NOT Trump's opponent.
Never can I type for shit and sometimes I get unaccountably pissy.
I'm proud of neither.
The Miss Universe who Hillary touted at the debate...
Google “Machado videos”. Apparently the first one is pretty good. “Porn quality: 99%”
Nice role model, Hillary.
Basically she was in breach of contract and Trump would have been justified in terminating her and awarding the crown to the first runner-up. The Hillary-bots want you to think he just wanders down the street, randomly insulting women.
Like in 2012, hen Obama accused Romney of wanting GM to declare bankruptcy in 2009, when of course the Obama Admin took GM through bankruptcy, same as Romney would have--the Dems count on the voters being ignorant or stupid, and with the help of their media allies who spin it just so, they are usually right.
Trump can be crass, but c'mon. 60 pounds in one year? In a job where you are selling yourself as one of the most beautiful women in the world?
It's a good thing that women's work is by definition unimportant and not worthy of your best effort. Because if your team's quarterback gained 60 pounds in a year, the fans would set the stadium on fire.
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