A poll released on August 12th by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reports “With Bush holding the advantage on most personal qualities and Kerry on most issues, the horse race itself is about as deadlocked as it was prior to the Democratic Convention, with 47% of registered voters favoring the Kerry/Edwards ticket, and 45% favoring Bush and Cheney. Just 2% say they would vote for Nader if the election were being held today.”
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Editor’s Corner
By Ed Kilgore
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December 5: A Field Guide to MAGA Excuses for the Toddler President
Don’t know if this post from New York about Trump’s immaturity will get me onto the White House list of enemy media, but there’s a chance.
Veteran political journalist Jonathan Martin has a new rant at Politico Magazine with the self-explanatory headline: “The President Who Never Grew Up.” Nothing he said is the least bit revelatory; it’s all about things we know Donald Trump has done and said but lined up in a way that illustrates how very much the president resembles a child, and a not-very-well-behaved child at that. A sample:
Trump is living his best life in this second and final turn in the White House. Coming up on one year back in power, he’s turned the office into an adult fantasy camp, a Tom Hanks-in-Big, ice-cream-for-dinner escapade posing as a presidency.
The brazen corruption, near-daily vulgarity and handing out pardons like lollipops is impossible to ignore and deserves the scorn of history. Yet how the president is spending much of his time reveals his flippant attitude toward his second term. This is free-range Trump. And the country has never seen such an indulgent head of state.
Yes, he’s one-part Viktor Orbán, making a mockery of the rule of law and wielding state power to reward friends and punish foes while eroding institutions.
But he’s also a 12-year-old boy: There’s fun trips, lots of screen time, playing with toys, reliable kids’ menus and cool gifts under the tree — no socks or trapper keepers.
Martin is just scratching the surface here. He doesn’t even mention the president’s inability to admit or accept responsibility for mistakes, which is reminiscent of an excuse-making child, or his tendency to fabricate his own set of “facts” like an incessant daydreamer bored by kindergarten. Now to be clear, the essentially juvenile nature of many of Trump’s preoccupations and impulses has struck just about everybody who’s forced to watch him closely and isn’t inclined by party or ideology to jump into the sandbox with him to share the fun. But since he’s the president, it’s more seemly for critics to focus on problems deeper than immaturity. There are the many worrisome “isms” he is prone to embrace or reflect (nativism, racism, sexism, authoritarianism, jingoism, cronyism, nepotism). And there’s also his habit of surrounding himself with cartoon villains like Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, and J.D. Vance who are the stuff of grown-up nightmares.
But still, I find myself wondering regularly how Trump’s own followers process his rather blatant lack of seriousness about the most serious job on the planet. If there’s such a thing as negative gravitas, the toddler president has it in abundance. So what are the excuses MAGA folk make for him? There are five major rationalizations that come to mind:
Trolling the liberals
Whenever he says something especially outrageous or embarrassing, we are quickly told by his defenders that he’s just having an enormous joke at the expense of humorless liberals. This dates back to pro-Trump journalist Salena Zito’s famous 2016 dictum that his followers “take him seriously but not literally.” Where you draw the line between the stuff he means and the stuff he’s just kidding about can obviously be adjusted to cover any lapses in taste or honesty he might betray. The “he’s just trolling the libs” defense is a useful bit of jiujitsu as it happens. It turns the self-righteousness of his critics into foolishness while neutering any fears that whatever nasty or malicious thing Trump has said reflects his true nature and inclinations. You see this tactic a lot with Trumpworld social-media takes on mass deportation that exhibit what some have called “performative cruelty” in depicting ICE violence against immigrants, which predictably shock liberals who are then mocked for not understanding it’s all a shuck. Meanwhile, the most radical of Trump’s MAGA fans bask in the administration’s appropriation of their worst impulses.
Playing chess, not checkers
A second rationalization you hear from Trump’s defenders, particularly when he says or does something that makes no sense, is to argue that he’s operating on multiple levels that include some higher strategies his critics simply don’t have the mental bandwidth to grasp. If, for example, he insults a foreign leader, he may secretly be setting off a diplomatic chain reaction that results in foreign-policy gains somewhere else. Similarly, if he defames federal judges, Democratic elected officials, or mainstream journalists, he may simply be trying to manipulate public opinion in a sophisticated way to overcome those who thwart or undermine his substantive agenda. Trump himself set the template for the “chess not checkers” theory by telling us his most incoherent speeches and statements reflect a novel rhetorical style he calls “the weave.” You do have to admire his chutzpah in telling people they simply aren’t smart enough to follow him as he fails to complete thoughts and sentences.
He’s a man of the people, and the people are as childish as he is
An even more common excuse for Trump’s worst traits is that he is focused on communicating with the people, not the media or other snooty elites. If he’s crude or impulsive or irrational, so, too, are the people. As one liberal writer ruefully admitted of Trump circa 2016:
He liked fast food and sports and, most importantly, he shared all their gripes and complaints and articulated them in the same terms some used themselves. For all his crowing about his money and showing off, he really didn’t put on airs. He was just like them.
And he behaved just like they would if they were given a billion dollars and unlimited power. Thus his childishness and even his cruelty could be construed as efforts to meld minds with the sovereign public or, at least, key parts of it. This became most explicit in 2024 when Trump’s crudeness and fury about diversity were transformed into a shrew pitch for the support of the “manosphere” and the masses of politically volatile younger men who spend much of their lives there. It could even serve as an excuse for his destruction of the White House as we’ve known it. Gold plating of everything in sight and the construction of a huge, garish ballroom might disgust aesthetes and history buffs with postgraduate degrees and no common sense. But with the White House set to become a venue for UFC fights, why not go big and loud? Nobody elected architecture experts to run the country, did they?
Trump is an insurgent leader with an insurgent style
A parallel excuse for Trump’s uncouthness is that transgressions are central to his mission. He’s there to overturn the Establishment, not respect its silly rules of what’s appropriate for presidents. His distractors ruined the country, so who are they to complain when it requires someone unconventional to set things aright? Trump campaigned in 2016, 2020, and 2024 as a disrupter and thrilled his followers by refusing to be domesticated in office. When returned to power most recently, he hit Washington like a gale-force wind defying all precedents and expressing an exasperated public’s disgust with the status quo and the people who led it. So why would anyone expect this Robespierre to play by the rules of Versailles? That’s not who he is and not what he was elected to do.
He’s saving America, so he should be able to do any damn thing he wants
The president himself has best articulated the standard by which he judges himself and expects to be judged by his followers, and by history, in a Truth Social post this past February: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” From the MAGA point of view, the 47th president is bending history, reversing a long trend toward national decline, and raising the economic aspirations and moral values of America to heights thought to be long lost. Perhaps the most powerful rationalization for Trump’s many excesses ever written was the famous 2016 essay by Michael Anton comparing those supporting Trump’s challenge to Hillary Clinton to the desperate and self-sacrificing passengers of the hijacked September 11 flight that brought the plane down by rushing the terrorists in the cockpit:
[I]f you don’t try, death is certain. To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.
It’s Trump, warts and all, or the abyss, to many Trump fans, today as in 2016. So if he wants to have some boyish fun while he’s saving America, and perhaps civilization, who are we to deny him?
This will probably be the Convention:
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Official GOP Chaplain to lead convention prayer
The General was pleased to see that Jerry Falwell has been tapped to give the opening prayer at the Republican Convention. As the following quotes demonstrate, there is no other pastor in this country who better embodies the values of Our Leader, the Anointed One.
“The idea that religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.
If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.
It appears that America’s anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men’s movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening.
The Bible is the inerrant … word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible,without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etc.
Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.
I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!
AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.
God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.
The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this [terrorist attacks].
And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, “You helped this [terrorist attacks] happen.”
Eldon and rachel, I love your approach with a certain amount of intensity. Its very reassuring, please pass the word around so that the other democrats and kerry supporters can get some of these butterflies outta their stomachs. This level of anxiety can lead to stress.
I also agree that Bush really has no issues on which to run. I have posted this several times and hence I think Kerry supporters need not worry so much. In the final analysis, I am pretty certain that America will vote with its heart and mind. If this is the case, then Bush has no platform on which to run and certainly none on which to win.
I just cant wait to hear and see the contents of this convention. I perceive a meeting full of hype and rhetoric and begging. What’s new that BUsh can bring to the public domain now? He had his chance, he made his promises and he failed. Is he going to outline a whole new batch of promises? Who wll consume these promises this time?
All that Bush has any choice of saying is that “we have turned the corner and we cant turn back now” and any fool can see thats a generic statement and can mean just about anything.. and I mean anything. It can even mean that Bush has turned the corner outta the white house and cant turn back now too.
I await the convention and I join with other believers to say that Kerry and Edwards will win and I have no qualms about saying it either. The moral fibre of the American people is at stake here and Bush has scuttled it so badly over the past four years thats its important for the people to simply get it back because they know that Bush does not know what on earth the term “moral fibre” means.
Lets also note that the world needs a change. Pay attention to the quality of the results in athens, the international press coverage and the crowd responses and you will see how much the US needs to change this president and reubuild its alliances. Its needed sooooooooooooo badly that it hurts.
Go campaign for your team..
Cheers
I agree with rachelrachel. People are underestimating Kerry’s shrewdness. He set himself up, for instance, as a target for the Swift Boat Liars, and they fell for it, looking in the final analysis like third string basketball players who should be back on the bench. All of their best chances for slinging slime will be yesterday’s news on the bottom of the birdcage, and Bush will be left with nothing to talk about except the issues, which is hard to do when you can’t put a sentence together with both a subject and a verb.
The Kerry camp immediately came back with speeches where Bush talked about the importance of being sensitive, the excerpt of which was played on the networks, the effect of which is that Cheney no longer lashes out at Kerry for his “sensitive” remark. Like any candidate in a competitive race, Kerry sometimes has to play defense, and here he did it effectively.
The swift boat attacks seem to have fizzled out.
No matter how emotionally satisfying some people find it, the AWOL stuff is useless against Bush, about whom most voters already have an opinion.
Anybody who has been following Kerry knows that (even though he has vowed to stay positive) he has been attacking Bush on his record.
Kerry knows what he’s doing, and unless the dynamic changes dramatically before November, he will be the next occupant of the White House.
“Both Kerry and Edwards voted to send troops into harm’s way and then voted against the funds to support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplies like body armor and ammunition,” said Jones.
To the casual reader, the above statement by Jones of the GOP seems like an indictment on both Kerry and Edwards but technically, its not. Its fuel for the DEMS.
Its really an acceptance and admission by the GOP that the president did send the troops in harms way. Add this to the many revelations regarding this invasion, then add it again to the many untruths from the president and his cohorts and then add it again, for good measure, to the shifting reasons for the invasion and you will see that the president, knowingly sent the troops into harms way, knowing also that the reasons were unjustified, knowing also that he concopted his stories, knowing also that he never intended to pursure the perpetrators of 9/11.
So, this statement is not a negative but an open admission by the president’s men that he failed this country and its people, yet again.
Can the democrats ask for more fodder and fuel than this? They have all the amunition they need at their finger tips, their fingers are on the triggers, they just need to act decisively on the information and fuel which they have in hand… and trust me, they have arsenals of it.
I am not really sure what they are waiting for.. but I think they are holding until after the convention and hence nullify any possible responses that the GOP might want to make at the convention.
But even then, it might not be a bad idea to pepper the GOP so badly, that they need to be on the defensive at the convention.. it might not be bad idea to have them gasping for breath while they speak and literally seek to throw them off topic.
If only the democrats had strategists and real PR people and such… they could have considered a two pronged approach, where they give the GOP tons of questions to answer just about the time they go into the convention… and then.. as soon as the convention is over, have a blitz to refute every plan of action which they propose.
Its always a good idea to keep your opponent on the back foot, on the defensive, wondering whats next, breathing heavy and gasping for air.
Ask Al Quaida about this method of winning battles. These guys still have the world second guessing, still wondering where next, still looking over its shoulders and yet, they live such a primitive life. Its so fascinating. hmm
It would do the democrats a good to try hitting the GOP around the knees and throwing them off balance just before and during the convention… they should not leave that up to the protestors.
Cheers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3562470.stm
when you read the above, you will find that Kerry can easily be the next president. I cant see how he can lose it. The electorate wants to have a change and they will get one.
From reading and receiving the many comments on this wild wild web, its obvious that every person who wants a change in the white house is a bit worried about the methods of the kerry campaign.
I have e-chatted with people in the US and other places around the world and just about everyone, who fits the above mold, is kinda concerned.
My response however is that I dont genuinely think that there should be a whole lots of butterflies and those squelchy feelings which we tend to get in our stomachs when we are anxious. I think that we need to do the analysis and not the complex analyses which we get from the polls but that simple analysis which we get from the human heart.
I cannot think of any right minded, right thinking american who would want to live thru what this adminstration has created for its people in the past four years. Forget about pandering to the rich, forget about invading Iraq for sinister reasons and you will still realise that this administration has taken its people on a horrific ride of failures, lies, deceit and hair splitting explanations.
While I am quick to admit that the GOP functions in the same mode as AL Quaida and hence, it will rally around its man, I think that there are enough angry and disillusioned republicans who will either vote for Kerry or, will simply stay at home and not vote.
I know that the press is thinking twice about giving Kerry good and open publicity but its not the press that decides the outcome of the elections, its the electorate. The fact that the polls keep showing the two prospects in a tight neck and neck race is a clear indicator that the electorate is not following the press’ leads and are making up their own minds based on their own experiences and real life visuals of the situation in the US today.
I am not even convinced that those being polled are giving the polsters accurate information or that the polsters are offering balanced questions.
In any event, I dont think that kerry supporters or whitehouse changers need to catch butterflies during this election period because I have enogh confidence in the peoples of the US to vote with their hearts and minds and experiences.
I feel pretty sure that the GOP will fall on a surprise in November.
For those who are not so convinced, start beating the pavements and canvas for you man.
Cheers
Well… its good that the dems are getting their own to talk… the next steop now will be to find the best media and use them.
I too wonder if it wont be better to keep targetting local media as they are more inclined to do the actual reporting.
Sometimes it doesnt hurt to pay for PR either..
Cheers
Does Kerry have surrogates in the swing states? While the national media seem to be ignoring the nuances and lies of the Bush/Cheney team, the local media seem to eat up local visits with more in depth coverage. Are Howard Dean, Wes Clark and Gephardt speaking to local groups and finding their comments reported?
Are the local media in swing states more important than national media in winning this election?
Polling is one indication. I am wondering about the larger than usual crowds that come to see Kerry. Is this an energized base? Or are the polls missing something?
This site always calms my nerves:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
The kerry camp doesnt seem to care…. how could they allow Cheney and wife to talk so much nonsense about being sensitive in war and not blanket the media with stern rebuttals?
How could they let them get away with this crap?
The media does not care to report the truth either and they certain are not interested in investigative journalism. I am yet to hear a single journalist confront the GOP or even Cheney to expand on his rant about Kerry and sensitive wars. Are they really this afraid of Cheney, Bush and the GOP?
Why are the journalist always asking Kerry to define and defend his position and never asking Bush or Cheney to define and explain their variants on the truth. When are the journalists going to call these people on their lies?
What a weak democratic camp and what a woeful bunch of journalists.
cheers
you are right warp resident.. if kerry and crew cant push bush onto the back foot and onto the floor because of his four year record, then he really does not deserve to be president.. and I mean that. He wont be able to contain the four years of relentless attacks from the GOP during his presidency. They wont let him run the place.. so I agree…. if he cant knock this guy off based on his presidency, then he dont deserve the position..
cheers
Few have mentioned that Kerry may have a strategy in mind. He may have made a blunder with his phrasing of the response to the question of supporting the war knowing what we now know. But his campaign has said that it won’t shrink back from taking on negative attacks. The question is when and how. My guess is they think it is still too early to attack Bush on his record. Kerry is still trying to define himself and his platform to the undecided voters. Once they have laid out the foundation he will come out swinging. There is no need to bring up old attacks like the AWOL charge or Bush’s oil ties. This administation has a four year record to answer for. If Kerry doesn’t make that record an issue and hit back hard with the incompetence charge he doesn’t deserve to be elected.
Bel, was there ever a time when Christians wouldn’t lie, steal, murder and pillage to get their way? Ever hear of a little thing called the Crusades? Or the Thirty Years War? More recently, the most “Christian” part of this country held their fellow men in slavery for 246 years, then erected an apartheid system whose effects are still in evidence today.
Bush and his thugs are much more steeped in the 2000-year history of Christianity than the Quakerish pacifist tradition that only began in the 17th Century.
The Washington Post has an article declaring that Al Quaida seems to be showing new signs of life. I cannot fathom how intelligent people can write articles of this nature. Where do we get the idea that Al Quaida was dieing?
Organisations of this type, with their level of organisations dont die. They go thru phases and as such, they become dormant, hibernate and in some instances, they mutate. One thing is certain, they dont die. These organisations conform very snuggly with the laws of nature and hence, those very laws perpetuate their survival. So no one should talk about the death of Al Quaida. We will all be dead and gone and they will still be hanging around in whatever form they have mutated towards in that ear, and fighting whatever is the current cause.
Dont be misled by Bush and his crew that they have done something about Al Quaida and terrorism. Its a silly statement and its not true. I cant be true. There may be latent periods, there may be a batch of docile leaders but Bush has not and will not impact on Al Quaida to the extent that they are dead.
Its like telling me that the PLO is dead… it wont die.
Cheers
If Kerry is behind in the personality arena, then I think the party should push and sell the team concept. In other words, take some of the heat from Kerry by using the edwards persona… let kerry stay focussed on the issues.
It will be very important what will be the net results of the hurricane in FLorda as it related to the elections. I am sure bush will be down there as soon as the hurricane passes, trying to show how much he cares and why they need to vote for him. I am sure he will use this event to muster more votes for himself… and the thing is, the democrats wont be able to do anything about it… no more than to use the media to higlight the possibilit of Bush politicizing the hurricane.. hmm
Again, I still dont think that Kerry is losing anything at this point. I think he has to worry after the convention. Its at that point that the worse attack dogs of the GOP will be released because it will be the last lap. I dont have enough confidence in the democrats to be prepared to counter their onslaught so I guess we have to fuel the other grass root organisations to counter their onslaught.. but it will be ravenous. Thats what I believe.
I cant help but be fascinated by the GOP…. as christian as they pretend to be, they will do anything to get their own way. Its hard to see people classify Bush as a devout christian by yet he wont denounce adverts that are distinct lies and I wont be surprised of most of those he puts his name on aint untruths too…. the GOP must be commended.
Cheers
Even if there’s some slippage for Kerry in the national polls, what matters is the swing states. Bush is getting 68% in Wyoming but 41% in Florida.
I wonder how much money and attention the Bush brothers will throw at Florida in the name of disaster relief. I guess if you’re in a swing state and you’ve got to have a disaster, now’s the time to have it.
Dismissing things as dirty politics is all well and good, but as numerous bloggers have pointed out today, the Kerry camp hasn’t explained WHY its dirty politics.
I wish RT were here to provide some analysis of the Swiftboat vet attacks. It sure seems to me that the story is dying already. I think the end result of these attacks will be to clarify that Kerry’s service record was stellar. By the way, I think Kerry is wise to avoid going so far as to mention the AWOL charge now. He is riding the high road, and that has its own advantages, because he can dismiss attacks as “dirty politics”—especially since several attacks have been shown to be baseless already.
It’s better to keep the AWOL charge for later in the campaign, if necessary. Look, the whole problem with the swiftboat ads is that they came WAY too early, which Kerry forced by emphasizing his military record. The single thing that would help Kerry most is to articulate a clear difference with Bush on Iraq; this is quite difficult to do without limiting h is options once he is President.
Shit. Don’t say that I’m going to get a drink now.
I think both camps are just throwing money and time to the wind. The polls have not changed much for months and the R convention will not make them change much either. The voters have made up thair minds and the few people who vote that haven’t don’t care untill election day is almost here. That’s why I think the debates are going to be what desides our next President. They should forget this campaining and concentrate on the debates. who ever wins those will be our next President.
According to Josh Marshall the Swift Boat Lies are getting some traction and are the primary culprit for these numbers.
I don’t think there is slipping in the Pew poll. Kerry leads by the same margin as the last.
This is two polls showing Kerry slipping. It might be right. Bush has got a clear, well-defined political strategy. He and his team are ruthless executing it.
It doesn’t appear that Kerry is ready to let the negative campaign go. He’s got his positive message, but boy is he passing up some huge opportunities by refusing to fire away.
For example, is he sure now it was a good idea not to let Democrats go after the National Guard business in the Spring? When the story had some traction.
And who’s speaking for the campaign? Does he have someone like Carville to let fly those nasty quips that reporters love to print?
You need both a good offense and defense.