So much about the candidacy of Donald Trump — a man who should have been laughed off the presidential stage more than a year ago — defies all reason, and everything we’ve learned about politics in my lifetime.
For instance, POLITICO tweeted this today:
How Howard Stern owned @realDonaldTrump – and how it's haunting the candidate https://t.co/ibsdcpSaaO | Getty pic.twitter.com/lFSG8uMor6
— POLITICO (@politico) October 6, 2016
It haunts him? For any actual politician, that would be a death knell. Seriously, can you imagine any other political figure being best buds with Howard Stern for decades, and regularly going on his show to speak in crude terms about his sex life, continuing to be a political figure? Not even as shameless a yo-yo as Anthony Weiner could accomplish that.
I can’t imagine it, either. We’ve spoken in the past of this or that pol having a Teflon coating, but they were nothing compared to this guy. One thing after another that would destroy anyone else I’ve ever seen in politics, and his fans just love him more.
Then there’s this, in The Washington Post a couple of days back:
The headline alone would send a shudder down the spine of most elected officials: “‘Apprentice’ cast and crew say Trump was lewd and sexist.”
That’s the top of a story from the Associated Press posted Monday morning that details Trump’s often-inappropriate behavior toward women who both appeared and worked on his hit TV show “The Apprentice.” The AP talked to 20(!) former contestants or crew members on the show including 12(!) who spoke on the record to the news organization. That’s remarkable. And what’s as remarkable is that they all told a very similar story about Trump: While on the set of the show, he would openly discuss women’s looks and whether he would sleep with them….
For any normal political candidate, a story like this one would be an absolute cataclysm. Almost two dozen former employees and contestants speaking out about behavior that the average voter would deem deeply inappropriate in a workplace environment? It would be enough to push some candidates out of a race entirely. For others, it would be a deep wound from which they might not be able to recover.
For Trump, it’s just another Monday….
Absolutely. Everyone, from his fans to those of us who see him as anathema, will just shrug it off. Why? Because that’s Trump. We know that’s who he is. We’ve known it for years, which is why it was so ridiculous when he started running for president last year. The nerve of this bozo!
Which is why it strikes me as pointless that the story currently leading the Post’s site is headlined, “Trump’s use of debts and tax laws spurs concerns about his methods.”
Really? Yawn… You think that’s going to affect anything? Not with this guy, with far more lurid stuff being shrugged off multiple times daily…
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The tax and debt stuff isn’t as titalating as the lewd behavior story but it’s more important for his job resume. I would love to see a campaign that focuses on the proper use of debt and foreign aid issues than the girth of Ms Universe.
I would love to see that campaign focus from HRC, too, Bud. As a matter of fact, I would greatly appreciate a simple statement of what U.S. foreign policy in the M.E. was during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.
Unfortunately, no description of goals fits observable results.
Had Secretary Clinton and her colleagues been as “extremely careless in their handling of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle east as they were (according to FBI Director James Comey) of “handling very sensitive, highly classified information” ?.
In my opinion, the operative word is INCOMPETENCE rather than carelessness.
Juan are you a Trump supporter??
Bud, thanks for asking. I make no secret of placing more faith in Trump’s management discipline than in Clinton’s proclivity for growing a government already too large, disorganized, wasteful and unaccoutable to be effectively managed.
FYI, I will not waste my time arguing with Clinton supporters (e.g. you) about any of Trump’s alleged shortcomings. We can hardly expect to change each other’s mind.
The Secretary of State does not set policy. POTUS does.
Hillary Clinton, an itelligent if sometimes EXTREMELY careless Secretary of State, surely understood and accepted Obama’s Mid Eastern U.S. foreign policy goals. And, since Clinton claims her Cabinet experience is a stellar qualification to become president, she is responsibie for actual results, deplorable as observed or successful as yet unclaimed.
Look folks Brad has made some really, really dumb observations over the years but on the Trump thing he’s absolutely correct. Trump is very scary.
Question for bud: What percentage of the GOP do you estimate are irredeemably racist “deplorables”?
Now that’s not a loaded question is it? Let’s just stick with Trump supporters and set the “mainstream” GOP aside. I’ll just say this, the Alt-Right movement, a decidedly racist organization, supports Trump. Ditto David Duke. Many other examples are out there. Pretty full basket I’d say.
You have to separate out mere implicit bias from deplorable racism. Ignorance from willful hate. I don’t know how to do that without a lot of sophisticated psychological testing. I do think that it is hard to reconcile support for Trump, with all his well-known deplorable statements, with positive qualities….
” and regularly going on his show to speak in crude terms about his sex life, continuing to be a political figure? ”
True. He should have stood in front of the American people and lied about his sex life instead until he couldn’t lie any longer.
There isn’t anything Trump did in the past that compares to what Bill Clinton did and Hillary Clinton defended. Nothing.
Rape is pretty serious Doug. There are at least 2 allegations against Trump. Ivana’s charge is under oath.
You can read more about the Trump rape allegations here:
http://fusion.net/story/328522/donald-trump-accused-rape-sexual-assault/
I’m guessing you haven’t heard of me, then.
Broaddrick stated under oath Clinton did not rape her. Ivana stated under oath Trump did rape her. The rape allegations are just that, allegations. That leaves Lewinsky. That is adultery. Trump engaged in adultery also. Doug claims Clintons their is “nothing Trump did that compare to what the Clintons did” . I call bullshit.
So you’re saying Clinton is at least as bad as Trump? That’s a start,
As far as I know, Donald Trump never engaged in sex in the Oval Office with an employee.
But then, I hold the office of the President to a higher standard than that of a real estate developer. I’m funny that way.
First, let’s consider this: “He should have stood in front of the American people and lied about his sex life instead until he couldn’t lie any longer.”
Absolutely. Give me someone who knows what he did was shameful and tries to hide it over a guy who goes on Howard Stern and boasts about it. Definitely, no question whatsoever. One represents timeless male weakness, the other represents the collapse of our society and culture.
Was what Clinton did excusable? Absolutely not. Remember, we were tied as the first paper in the country to call on Clinton to resign (I think the Orlando Sentinel did it the same day we did — the day after his admission he’d been lying all along). What he did was something CEOs get fired for (and was WAY more than Clarence Thomas was ever accused of doing, all you ladies who go to the Anita Hill parties but give Bill a pass), and lying about it made him unfit to stay in office.
But between the two inexcusable situations, if I had to choose one, I’d choose Bill. Not even considering the fact that he was very, very good at being president. As opposed to being a total nightmare.
And this statement is just utterly absurd: “There isn’t anything Trump did in the past that compares to what Bill Clinton did and Hillary Clinton defended. Nothing.” Just on the sexual front — not considering all the other areas where the Clintons are miles above him — Trump is a nightmare, one of the most lascivious, classless individuals who is widely known in this country. If you were to draw up a list of classless boors who are celebrities in this country, giving great weight to sexual misbehavior, Trump would almost certainly be in the Top Ten. And not because of stuff he’s been CAUGHT doing, but stuff he BRAGS about doing…
Speaking of Lewinsky… back in the day, we were exposed to a lot of stuff I did NOT want to know about the details of Clinton’s relationship with her.
And while his offenses were most certainly impeachable, I remember being struck by how reluctant and hesitant Clinton was in the relationship — particularly for a guy known for being such a skirt-chaser.
Rather than just going ahead and, how shall I put this, HAVING her like a MAN, there was all this fooling around, like adolescents who are trying to stay in the bounds and not go “all the way.” Which was the basis for Clinton’s rationalization that he had not had “sexual relations” with her. It was as though there was a CONSCIENCE (although a very addled one) at work, holding him back, trying not to go beyond what he could offer excuses for. He seemed a very hesitant adulterer, constrained by his own messed-up, immature notions of what he should and shouldn’t do.
It was boyish, rather than behavior one expects from the most powerful man in the world. Do you think JFK stuck to heavy petting with Marilyn? Of course not, bad back or no.
Anyway, I say all this because Trump brags of being the kind of guy who doesn’t just go all the way, but with as many women as possible, with every position in the Kama Sutra and then some. Or so he wants us to think…
Trump was conditioning her as sexual predators do. He adapted his technique to fit the schoolgirl crush.
When you hear the details of what he did, when he did it there is no doubt he was in control at all times.
Sorry – that was supposed to be Clinton.
The fact that Clinton did his dirty work while President is what makes it worse than what Trump ever did. I don’t care as much about the likely affairs he’s had since then,. He desecrated the office and never showed any remorse for his behavior. And Hillary stood by him the whole time to ensure she would have a political career.
Let’s try to keep the facts in full focus:
“Writings about the Clinton White House years suggest she was active behind the scenes, helping to drive political and legal strategy to defend her husband during the Lewinsky investigation. Her friend Diane Blair wrote in her diary that Hillary Clinton had called Lewinsky a “narcissistic loony tune.” Former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, in his 1999 memoir, recalled Hillary Clinton in 1992 saying of one woman who claimed to have been propositioned by her husband, “We have to destroy her story.”
Yeah, I suspect that Hillary played a similar role to the Emma Thompson character in “Primary Colors” — the grownup who convenes the strategy session on how to deal with the latest fallout from her husband’s misbehavior, while he’s across the street at Krispy Kreme having an apple fritter.
Someone has to be the grownup.
And Lewinsky, near as I can tell, probably was “a narcissistic loony tune.”
And bud, please spare us the “she was a consenting adult” garbage. She was a child. And even if you don’t agree with my perspective (which is that of a man whose children are all far older than she was, who has a grandchild almost the age she was), you should be able to agree that she was the closest thing to a child actually working in the White House, while he was not only the boss in that workplace, but the most powerful man in the world.
Look her up and see the painful consequences she has suffered as a result of her grossly immature, adolescent behavior (which, as I’ve said, was matched by the even less excusable, grossly immature, adolescent behavior on the part of POTUS).
There are of course several popular misconceptions going on here that drive me nuts. One is this “if everyone was consenting, it was OK.” Another is that a 22-year-old is a fully empowered, mature adult. But apologists for Bill (the “it was only adultery” contingent) take it to another level when they pretend that the president of the United States and an intern were somehow equals in this tawdry, absurd relationship…
The attitudes so many Democrats exhibit in minimizing and excusing Bill’s behavior are among the many reasons I can’t be a Democrat, or a liberal as the term is popularly defined these days…
One very important point. It BILL doing Lewinsky not HILLARY. Of course she said nasty thing about them. What was she supposed to say, “nice dress Monica. That shade of blue matches your eyes”.
She blamed the victim in all cases. If a guy says “she asked for it”, he will be crucified by liberals.
Hillary was a victim, not Monica. She was a consenting adult. If this is the strategy Trump pursues he loses badly. No amount of spin can work to make Hillary look worse than Trump. But given the polls I guess it’s desperation time
“Hillary was a victim, not Monica. She was a consenting adult.”
Oh, if Hillary would just say that in the next debate… PLEASE! Every lawyer who has to defend a charge of sexual harassment in a boss/employee situation would LOVE to hear the President say that.
I suppose you’re right. Monica consented. Juanita consented. Paula consented. Gennifer consented. All the other “bimbos” as they were called consented. And Hillary just kept her eyes on the prize the whole time.
Let’s just recap this discussion. The assertion was this:
“There isn’t anything Trump did in the past that compares to what Bill Clinton did and Hillary Clinton defended. Nothing.”
There are allegations of at least 3 rapes. It is well established that Trump had affairs with both his first two wives. Throw in the various episodes of humiliation against many women. The assertion is hereby given 4 Pinocchios and for good measure a pants on fire.
There are also allegations about Hillary Clinton’s behavior during Benghazi, Whitewater, The Clinton Foundation, and her email server. Just want to understand whether allegations = true.
Clinton was President. Trump was not. Clinton was worse. Trump embarrassed himself. Clinton embarrassed the country. Order of magnitude more damaging. And Hillary had his back the whole time and since.
FDR, JFK, WJC = serial adulterer Democrat Presidents.
Just a reminder Clintons approval rating was nearly 60% when he left office. Not much evidence to support great damage to the country. I will enthusiastically vote for the Clintons return to the White House and the prosperity that comes with that.
I don’t care how popular he was. A huge proportion of Americans have no standards or expectation of ethical behavior — as all the polls are showing us this year. But I do have standards and expectations…
Right. And as long as Trump stayed in his proper box, with the Kardashians and Howard Stern, et al. — tacky, tawdry, ridiculous self-promoting reality-TV celebrities — then I really wouldn’t care about him, since I don’t pay attention to that world.
But he’s presuming to run for president. So that means his actions get judged by that standard. As soon as he drops this farce and crawls back into his demimonde, I’ll have no more to say about him.
But as long as he continues this threat to democracy, then I’ll judge him as one who wants to be president….
Standards? Brad you are the last person to lecture anyone about standards. You endorsed a man who lied us into war.
Actually, no I didn’t. That did not happen. How many times are you going to keep saying that, when it simply IS NOT TRUE?
Ok so there is a new tape of him from 2005 being egregiously inappropriate that has surfaced . This one really really would sink a normal candidacy.
would and should.
But we’ll see.
I actually didn’t give this new “bombshell” much weight. It just really doesn’t add much new information about the man.
Another one. Jill Harth sued Trump for a sexual incident in 1997.
My thoughts on Bill Clinton. He is a sleaze. He is not Hillary. He is not running. Even though he is a sleaze, and I don’t at all condone what he did, I do see gradations between what we know of what he did and what Trump describes in this tape. If Trump wants to go there, it will not win him any favor with me. They both suck, but Trump is a much bigger sleaze. At least Clinton’s deplorable transgressions were on the surface consensual, though I very much take your point, Brad, and I repeat, he is a sleaze. The most offensive thing about the tape is the air of entitlement it embodies. Women aren’t the only thing that are objects to him that he thinks he is entitled to take if he feels like it. He thinks no rules apply to him.
But that is all irrelevant because Bill is not running. The idea that Hillary is somehow culpable for Bill’s actions because she chose to honor the vow she made before God is really really offensive to me. It just is. We don’t know her motivations. Maybe she really loves her husband, maybe it was for her career or appearances, or maybe it was for Chelsea. It’s not our place to judge and I don’t know that it matters. Honoring a vow when it is not easy for whatever reason is enough and is something to be respected. It just is. I strongly suspect if this was a republican, these same detractors would give much credit for keeping a marriage together through tough times. But somehow it’s a negative here.
If this is the fight he wants to pick, I think it’s going to blow up in his face.
Agree.