It was an improvised fit of pique, roundly and vigorously denounced by his rivals all weekend, that exposed the biggest vulnerability of Mr. Trump’s campaign for president: It is built entirely around the instincts and grievances of its unpredictable candidate -- and does not rely on a conventional political operation that protects presidential hopefuls from themselves....To Trump's admirers, all of these things are pluses, not minuses. He's not a politician! He's a citizen who continues his private-sector work as he seeks office! (And not just a citizen - an entrepreneur! A job creator!) He's not surrounded by career political hacks who run all of words past focus groups! He just is who he is!
Never mind that his top rivals for the Republican nomination treat campaigning like a full-time job. For Mr. Trump, the task of seeking the White House occupies half his time, he estimated in an interview. (“It’s probably 50-50,” he said.)
The rest of the Republican field’s top tier has cast a wide net to find experienced political aides. But Mr. Trump has plucked much of his team from inside his own corporate empire. (The résumé of his Iowa co-chairwoman: She was a contestant on “The Apprentice.”)...
There is no real policy shop churning out position papers, or for that matter a well-staffed central headquarters plotting his long-term message, or speechwriters drafting -- or modulating -- his words.
I'm not sure how many Trump cultists have read this, but those who have might regard it a puff piece -- or see the criticism in the piece as a sign that the political/journalistic establishment values all the wrong things. It's hardly going to diminish their admiration for their guy.
7 comments:
How much of Trump's campaign will he call a business-personal tax write-off? Palli
Politics is too important a subject to be trusted to clowns like Dumb-'n-old Chump!
Or, any of the GOP clowns on their clown-bus.
Where are the adult conservatives I use to have great policy arguments with, back in the '70's and early '80?
Oh yeah - they're dead.
Now, we're left to deal with a group of conservatives who never outgrew their "Terrible-Two's/Three's!"
The contest for the GOP nomination has become Trump's latest reality show. Any publicity is good publicity.
In an oblique slap to diehard Trumpers, Huffpost is moving all Trump coverage to their entertainment section. Huffpost means well, but they're way behind the curve. I think Trump lovers are just a fraction of media consumers who've lost the ability to make such distinctions. To a lot of folks, publicity equals credibility. "He runs casinos, he's on teevee, he hates all the stuff I hate...he can haz Preznit!" The GOP, the public, and any news organization pulling their hair out right now, over Trump needs to take a breath and ponder how bad things really are IRT scary crazy people (Gomert) or outright criminal (Issa) already ruining our lives on a daily basis. At least we dodged a bullet with Wesley Clarke. That was a shocker.
To Trump fans, the HuffPo thing just seems like yet another "liberal media" attack on Trump. Response will be: They're trying to silence him because they fear him! And how many GOP primary voters get their political news from HuffPo anyway?
Also, apparently the banishment hasn't really happened.
I suspect Trump's polling among the likely GOP primary base won't suffer all that much, if at all. For one thing, I'd guess that the more common motion of a "military hero" among that demographic derives more from computer-game models and the likes of "American Sniper" than it does from the old-school, muddy-boots, Willie-and-Joe model. For another, perhaps the most attractive thing about DT for the base seems to be precisely his big mouth and disregard for any niceties or scruples.
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