October 23, 2019
Dead poll discovered. You can no longer vote or even see the poll results, and I've forgotten what they were. But look what I asked on January 23, 2017.
Here's the post with the poll, which came up this morning when I was searching for old discussions of what Rush Limbaugh said when Obama became President: "I hope he fails." I won't use this post to explain why that became relevant to me this morning, because it would overwhelm and derail this discussion. I'll put that in the next post. Here, I just want to talk about that early speculation about how Trump would behave as President, now that we know he himself picked the first option (the strongest one).
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35 comments:
doesn't look like it helped lol
To a man who lives by Invictus, #1 was the only answer. Or as DJT said in Texas, " Come and get it." As a corollary rule:when you fight that hard that long, you might as well win.
Compare and contrast with the perfect gentleman Mitt Romney who was willing to throw the match for money.
i think i'd picked 3 (or c); the pick your fights, and don't get lost in the details one
BOY was i misunderestimating President Trump! He can walk and chew gum at the same time
With 20/20 hindsite; i'd say: Most able (if not Most Best) President of my time
(i was born in 1962; my first election was 1980)
If it wasn't clear at the time, it is even more clear today that the Fake News is in an all out war to defeat Trump. Recall what the top guy at the NYT said a few months back.
The problem for Trump is that there are many people in the electorate who just don't pay attention to this stuff so they can adopt the Fake News narrative of Orange Man Bad. When he does get impeached, at least there will be a trial and Trump will get out his side of the story. The Fake News, of course, won't cover anything favorable to Trump but I think people will get it. The American people aren't stupid.
And Warren (or Hillary) will be a terrible nominee. Trump wins 40 states. MSNBC staff commits suicide on air. Don Lemon quits. Fredo drowns himself in Lake Tahoe.
I seem to remember around that time that a lot of people assumed Trump would mellow out and become more "presidential" or whatever. I also remember that I doubted that he would (mellow out) or that he should.
Overall he's made the right decision to fight back aggressively, even though I think he can occasionally say things that may hurt him more than help him.
Trump can be impulsive in what he says, but not in what he does. This throws people in the media off since they tend to put far more weight on what is said versus what is actually done. After all, the media is in the business of saying things, not doing things.
The media are trying to defeat him. That much is clear.
He chose to be relentless and, as annoying and even embarrassing as that has been at times, it worked. And given that the left has shown no ability to learn from new facts or past failures, it will probably continue to work in the future.
I can't remember if I voted in that poll or not nor what my vote might have been. But if I look back in time to my thinking about Trump at the time - was not a supporter, not really an opponent either, just a Not-Hillary guy - I think I would have chosen:
Stop getting dragged into disputes. Lead the conversation. Do good things for us and talk about that
Thinking about it now, the first of those is impossible because his opponents are relentlessly attacking him. He has accomplished the latter two.
The attacks are opportunities. Trump likes them.
I was listening to Rush the day he said of Obama, "I hope he fails." It was very much in proper context. The press went breathless for hours, and by the evening news there were calls for Rush to leave, be dropped, or have his head removed. How dare he hope that Barack would not do well. Why...the entire existence of the nation rests on his succeeding with whatever he wants. Plus, RACISM!
A few years later: it's almost de rigueur to have to proclaim that you want Trump to not only fail, but to die, be beheaded, then to go jail. But still...they are breathless in their decrees.
Always breathless.
Frederick the Great said, "He who defends everything defends nothing."
I love that Trump fights. I love that he is willing to defend himself in contrast to historical GOP candidates. But I am cognizant of my psych 101 training, and 'he/she who defends himself constantly can be described as defensive'. Being defensive is in no way an admission of guilt. Far from it. But it does give of the impression of persecution, which in this weird world is also true of Trump. He is persecuted. Unfairly persecuted.
I guess my point is this. He should be more selective about picking his fights, especially with those people that are most definitely beneath him (in many cases unemployed/able). Them talking constantly about him and him recognizing it gives them as much free publicity as it gives him. He also needs to be more cautious about criticizing those he's brought on his team only to let them go. If they're so incompetent, why'd you pick them?
None of these things are mountains, only molehills of personality. And it should be remembered that he could be the nicest guy in the world, and it would change not a jot the minds of the people that hate him.
Your Rush comment is out of context. Rush went on to clarify that he was hoping Obama failed in his stated goal of fundamentally changing the country. I remember it explicitly because the media made a big deal out of him saying he was hoping the country failed, which is not what he said at all. Funny how the media's attitude on presidential failure changed when Trump was elected and they actively worked to facilitate that failure.
A commenter named Matt posted.....
37% of you [so far] are crazy voting for #1.
...and then Matt went on about "Trump should stop whining". "We need someone with backbone in the White House."
What a fucktard Matt is!!
Shows what kind of a strong leader trump is.
I think I voted 1. But I'll say I'm a fan of Trump the Destructor. I wanted him to fully abuse every power given to the President and test every convention we believe applies to the Presidency. Why? Because we've invested too much power into the Executive and it needs to be curtailed. I was not afraid of anything Trump would do. He was and is straight forward about his policy goals, which track towards run-on-of-the-mill populism with an anti-foreign-war-as-misadventure bend.
Now, I think I'd still vote 1. If the rumors are true about the Intelligence Community working to prevent Trump from becoming President, then this whole thing needs to be washed out like the Augean Stables.
"Your Rush comment is out of context. Rush went on to clarify that..."
Did you go back and read the old posts of mine that I referred to? That was my question for myself. What did I say at the time?
I didn't link to them in this post, so you'd have to do a search. I'll do it for you: here and here.
At that time, I listened to the podcast of Rush's show every day, so I was very aware of the context. I avoid repetition on this blog, so I didn't parse through that again, but I was curious about how I reacted to Rush's statement, because I remember that many people accused him of treason or something like it for wanting America to fail and now the tables have turned and a lot of people want Trump to fail, even in a military enterprise, and I'm wondering if I'd be a hypocrite to call it treason.
"... and I'm wondering if I'd be a hypocrite to call it treason..."
That is, did I let Rush off the hook?
The answer is that I took a moderate stance toward Rush.
“new Quinnipiac Poll today on whether Congress should impeach President Trump and remove him from office:
white men:
32% yes, 64% no
everyone else:
55% yes, 38% no (related: white men make up roughly 90% of House GOP and 80% of Senate GOP)”
~ John Harwood
I looked at the comment thread. Apparently I didn’t comment, but Freder did:
Trump couldn't care less about the workers. If you are a worker who voted for him because you think he will make your life better, you are a fool.
Record low unemployment, real wages rising an average of $5000, I think we can file Freder’s remarks in the same round file where Krugman’s famous prediction about when the stock market will recover.
I think the disconnect is that Trump’s economic policies are targeted towards improving the lot of people on the bottom of the economic ladder. Clinton, Obama, and both Bushes conditioned people like Freder and Krugman and others to believe that “proper” economic policies mostly put the money into the pockets of the self-proclaimed elites.
Once I became an adult and had a number of encounters with the news media as an athlete and lawyer, I concluded that the media was biased and incompetent. [note, see the great Crichton speech on 'Why Speculate'] They are, but I really had no understanding of just how nasty and mendacious they are until about 1990.
The lying, slander and character assassination by the news media is getting worse. And Trump has no choice but to fight back constantly.
Ann shows that she bought the media lies about what Rush said. Lots of people have bought the lies about what Trump said about Charlottesville. If more people had the guts to stand up for truth, Trump wouldn't have to fight so hard. But defenders of truth are few and far between today.
I don't remember what I voted but it was either #1 or #2.
Today, I like option #2. Keep jabbing. Keep punching. They won't know where the next punch is coming from. Keep them off their balance. Keep them on the ropes.
While the opponents are fighting the last jab or the one before that, Trump has moved on to the next obstacle to conquor.
"Rope a Dope" the dopes just like Ali.
support for impeachmnet rises
"...now that we know he himself picked the first option (the strongest one)."
It is curious to see Trump's incessant boo-hooing about "unfairness" interpreted as strength. Continuous blame-shifting and firing of subordinates, likewise.
I guess you must mean that Trump whines very loudly and constantly, so that makes him the strongest snowflake. Always with the tears about those meanies in the media and the opposition party.
Remember the old masculine ideal of "the strong, silent type?" John Wayne, Gary Cooper in fictional portrayals...Eisenhower in politics? Stoically shouldering responsibility, blame?
Well, that's not Trump. He's never responsible...it's always somebody else's fault.
He should graciously allow the professionals do their job.
Where do we find "the professionals"?
All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an artist, or an independent business creator. In the service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self. Becoming a parent is one of these basic human transformational deeds. By this act, we change our fundamental relationship with the universe — if nothing else, we lose our place as the pinnacle and end-point of evolution, and become a mere link. The demands of motherhood especially consume the old self, and replace it with something new, often better and wiser, sometimes wearier or disillusioned, or tense and terrified, certainly more self-knowing, but never the same again.
Cordelia's Honor (1996), "Author's Afterword"
Shards of Honor (1986)
If it ever came down to exerting power by force, it would mean I'd already lost it.
Leadership is mostly a power over imagination, and never more so than in combat. The bravest man alone can only be an armed lunatic. The real strength lies in the ability to get others to do your work.
If it ever came down to exerting power by force, it would mean I'd already lost it.
I've always thought tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.
An honor is not diminished for being shared.
Exile, for no other motive than ease, would be the last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.
My horn: toot toot
Bill, Republic of Texas said...
It's going to be a long and exhausting four years. Trump does l[o]ve[s] him some drama.
The press and Dems are going to run the same play they ran against Bush II. Crank everything up to 11. Have the news constantly about strife and turmoil. Protesters in the streets. Dems and press pursuing every little scandal as Watergate. Constant ethics complaints and investigation.
Then in four years run on the return to normalcy and quiet if only you elect the Dems. It is rather shocking the press and Dems openly blackmailing the public.
It worked on Bush because he didn't fight back. We'll see how Trump does but I'm already exhausted.
1/23/17, 5:46 PM
Pretty good guess. But I wasn't the only one. Way more accurate political prognostication there than all the Sunday shows combined.
Isn't trying to "fundamentally change" America a form of treason? What's the difference, especially if you violate the Constitution to do it? Of course the intent was not to do it violently, at least not until they got rid of the Second Amendment.
Isn't what Rush said, when left in context, exactly what a patriot should espouse?
The people that say Trump should pick his fights more closely miss the fact that he already does that. It is just so fast (compared to other politicians) that they don't see it.
Remember when Labor Secretary Acosta (that was his name right?) all of a sudden became a scandal? Trump told me you got to have a press conference and when that press conference did not (in Trump's eyes) but the issue to bed, he fired Acosta, the only prosecutor to ever successfully prosecute Epstein. From the start (media pounce!) to the end (press conference) was what like 3 days? I will restate -- Trump decided he was not going to have this fight.
When the "whistleblower" complaint about the Ukraine call was leaked how long did it take Trump to act? On 19 SEP 2019 the Wash Post said that the "whistleblower" complaint was about Ukraine, on 24 SEP 2019 Trump says he will release the transcript, 5 days, 120 hours. I will restate -- Trump decided he was not going to have this fight. Heck in the good old days of the Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations it would take 120 days before any documents were released.
And IMHO, Trump releasing transcripts was not expected and killed all of the plans that the Impeachment Brigade had laid out.
Anyway, by NOT fighting on some issues, Trump frees up energy to fight on others.
I voted for relentless that day, and events have proven that method to have been the correct one. The media would have take any other approach as a sign of weakness, as would have the voters most needed to turn on Trump if impeachment is to succeed.
sunsong: "support for impeachmnet rises"
Fake polls.
Fake news.
You are fooling no one, except for yourself.
The idea is to keep getting women to react negatively to nothing so often that women begin to wise up and analyze deeper than first feeling.
Women are the audience. The media pass Trump's words plus the clickbait reaction required on to the audience.
Eventually, like the garden slug, women learn not to react to it.
So Trump was right then and now and nobody else on Althouse.
support for impeachment rises
Then why won't your precious leftists in Congress take a simple vote to conduct a formal inquiry?
He's never responsible...it's always somebody else's fault.
It's amazing to me just how many people slept through the eight years of the Obama Administration.
@Althouse, I have been wondering. Is it possible that if you asked pollcode.com really nicely, that they’d have the results archived? Really, really, nicely?
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