Donald Trump ... moved late Tuesday to overhaul his struggling campaign by ... elevating two longtime associates who have encouraged his combative populism.Kevin Drum thinks Trump has effectively thrown in the towel:
Stephen Bannon, a former banker who runs the influential conservative outlet Breitbart News and is known for his fiercely anti-establishment politics, has been named the Trump campaign’s chief executive. Kellyanne Conway, a veteran Republican pollster who has been close to Trump for years, will assume the role of campaign manager....
Trump’s stunning decision effectively ended the months-long push by campaign chairman Paul Manafort to moderate Trump’s presentation and pitch for the general election. And it sent a signal, perhaps more clear than ever, that the real-estate mogul intends to finish this race on his own terms, with friends who share his instincts at his side.
... advisers described [Manafort's] status internally as diminished due to Trump’s unhappiness and restlessness in recent weeks.
Apparently Trump has decided that if he's going to kick the bucket in November, he wants to do it with friends and family at his bedside when he breathes his last. Instead of losing by seven or eight points, he might lose by a dozen instead. But at least he'll put on a helluva show in the meantime.Drum's post is titled "Donald Trump Decides He'd Rather Have Fun Than Be President."
You think? I don't. I think Trump believes he's finally righting the ship. Campaigning the way he wants to campaign has to work, because he's masterminded "a flawless campaign" (his words) -- or at least it was flawless until people who had doubts about his genius instincts began to meddle.
As I keep telling you, Trump has spent years imbibing the right-wing media message that "real Americans" are all angry white Fox viewers, and that white liberals, white moderates, and non-whites who are skeptical of wingnuttery either don't exist or are undocumented aliens or only show up in electoral vote totals becaue of voter fraud. In this view, there's no difference between the Republican primary electorate and the general electorate -- those folks are "taking their country back," and everyone who's not them took possession of the country through evil subterfuge.
When this doesn't work, I don't know how Trump's going to explain it -- media bias, probably, or Clinton subterfuge.
If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
It can't be his fault. Dammit, he should be winning. He really believes that -- still.
7 comments:
If hiring Kellyann Conway is not a White Flag I give up.
Yes, that horrible, biased media!
How dare they quote what he says, and not what he means!
(Which are really the thing).
His "reasoning" is similar to the longstanding RW trope: conservatism cannot fail; it can only be failed.
His campaign has a chairman, a chief executive, and a manager? What's that org chart look like anyway?
Great sucking vortex of fail probably.
One reason I prefer the take of Steve M. to that of Drum on
In Re Will Trump Stay Or Will He Go (my Clash ref for today),
is because mere months ago we watched
In Re Can Trump Win The GOP Nom.
In the earlier case, Steve M. (as well as many of his main thread dwellers, myself not excluded) was of the view that, Well YEAH: look at the friggin polling FCOL.
But Drum (as well has his far larger herd) just stuck their heads in the sand, insisting Trump was one debate, one week, one poll away from departure - until it was clear that, by thunder an lightnin, Trump actually had the nom in his swag bag.
Drum is a sunny guy, despite the ongoing death looming suicide option posts that pop up. Steve M. is not: he could well be a pretty nice guy, but at heart this blog manifests pessimism.
I like both! But on matters of this horrifying import, I prefer the pessimist.
I particularly agree with the implication that Trump has decided on the historically sound foundation that everyone but him is corrupt, a fool, a nitwit, or weak, and that if he just doubles down on trusting himself above all others, he will show them, he will show US all, he can pull this off thru sheer willpower. Trump is very into the Triumph of the Will mentality, always has been.
So this latest move IMO is partly cosmetic - to try to push Manafort into the background to protect Trump and shills from having to constantly field questions about Manafort and Putin - and partly just as real, but no more, than taking on Roger Stone then Stone being shuffled out, or taking on Lewandoski then replacing Lewandoski with Manafort, for much the same reasoning: to try to protect Trump and his shills from having to constantly field questions about Lewandowski and violence.
But it definitely does not mean that Banner has MORE authority than Lewandowski or Manafort had. Trump is in charge. If - when - Banner becomes the story and not whatever Trump says - means - then Bannner will be dumped, too.
Time is running down. I figure Trump has maybe two more manager dismissals left. But now Ailes is being piped aboard (ostensibly as a debates and ads consultant, but gimme a break), and I note also the quiet dark star of the consulting firm founded by Atwater, Stone and Manafort is INCREASINGLY detectable: Charlie Black.
Black is lower key & more cautious than the flamboyant clown Stone, than the flashy, bold & reckless Atwater, and than the mobbed-up thug Manafort. Black is cold, & calculating, a ubiquitous presence in white supremacist politics & the ultimate survivor.
This is probably the Last Hurrah for Charlie Black as well, along with his entire partnership; so I fully expect this grift to go out with a massive display of superficially awesome but in reality cheaply acquired, substandard, toxic and highly volatile pyrotechnics.
Good comment. Feud.
I guess someone's gotta say, "Maybe a head fake?" I doubt it, though. It would have to be a Manafort move: he's got game, Donald don't.
He's heading for the yoougest, most fabulous defeat in history.
He will go-down so hard that it will be the hardest go-down ever.
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