The campaign news keeps coming hot and heavy, but very little of it is about the issues. Someone better tell the candidates and the media that there's still five months until the first caucus and fifteen months until the election.
The latest is that one of Donald Trump's campaign advisors was either fired or quit the campaign. Roger Stone (the departing advisor) claims he quit and the Trump campaign says he was fired. Usually, this kind of story indicates a campaign that is in turmoil, but for Trump it seems like just another day at the office.
There's also the story of the Sunday morning shows today. The Trumpeters indicated early that Trump was refusing to go on Fox News Sunday while would appear on three other shows. Fox, however, announced that Trump would only appear on the show for a phone interview (which is what he did on some of the others. Fox News says that will not do phone interviews on Fox News Sunday. After all, someone on the phone can sit with talking points in front of them or could use a computer to look up information while talking without any viewers being aware of this. Again, this is the kind of story that normally would show campaign upset, but it's Trump so who knows.
Then, of course, there's the biggest of these stories: the Trump attacks on Megyn Kelly. Trump is now attacking those who say that his remark on CNN about blood coming from Kelly's "wherever" meant menstrual blood. He calls them "sick" and "deviants". This is no longer just a media story. Trump is now attacking the viewers as well. How many people who heard Trump say "You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever," thought that he meant menstrual blood? My guess is that it's a large percentage. Trump just said all those people are sick and deviants. My guess is that most of them won't like being called names.
On the other side, we have Hillary Clinton actually thumbing her nose at a federal judge who wanted assurances under oath about her email and the server that housed that email. This is not a principled stand by a journalist who refuses to give up his sources. There is no big issue at stake here. This is just a woman who thinks she is above the law refusing to obey an order of a federal court. Remember, all Hillary had to do was to confirm under oath what the current status of her email is. In other words she just had to say that she had (1) turned roughly 30,000 email over to the State Department, (2) destroyed the rest, and (3) kept no copy of the ones that were destroyed. Hillary's aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin had to do make similar statements regarding their own email. It's just three pieces of paper that they had to sign, BUT THEY WON'T!!! This has gotten lost in the swirl of Trump nonsense, but it won't disappear. Hillary's refusal to go on the record as ordered by a federal judge is astounding.
Then there's the question whether Bernie's Life Matters (with or without the hashtag). Yesterday, a Bernie Sanders rally was broken up by a few demonstrators of the #BlackLivesMatter group. Since it was a Sanders rally, when the demonstrators started chanting, they were called to the stage and offered the chance to speak. After about ten minutes, when they were asked to relinquish the mike, they refused and called the crowd "liberal white supremacists". Rather than show any strength, Sanders just left without addressing the thousands who had come to hear him speak. Sanders showed that he is a prisoner of politically correct ideology. He just couldn't bring himself to have security take the mike back from those who were disrupting things. After all, if they were chanting black lives matter, they couldn't be disturbed.
There are more of these stories out there in the mix. They may tell us (1) that Trump is nasty and a bully, or (2) that Hillary is arrogant, self important, and a liar, or (3) that Sanders is too weak to confront demonstrators who disrupt his events. The problem, though, is that there are many key issues facing the country and the focus is not on them. For example, what about job creation and economic growth? These candidates won't even talk about the subject. What about the Iran nuclear agreement? Chuck Schumer now opposes it, but that issue which means life or death for millions takes a back seat to nasty remarks by the Donald. This far ahead of the election, can't we have a reasoned debate of the issues rather than a reality show format.
The latest is that one of Donald Trump's campaign advisors was either fired or quit the campaign. Roger Stone (the departing advisor) claims he quit and the Trump campaign says he was fired. Usually, this kind of story indicates a campaign that is in turmoil, but for Trump it seems like just another day at the office.
There's also the story of the Sunday morning shows today. The Trumpeters indicated early that Trump was refusing to go on Fox News Sunday while would appear on three other shows. Fox, however, announced that Trump would only appear on the show for a phone interview (which is what he did on some of the others. Fox News says that will not do phone interviews on Fox News Sunday. After all, someone on the phone can sit with talking points in front of them or could use a computer to look up information while talking without any viewers being aware of this. Again, this is the kind of story that normally would show campaign upset, but it's Trump so who knows.
Then, of course, there's the biggest of these stories: the Trump attacks on Megyn Kelly. Trump is now attacking those who say that his remark on CNN about blood coming from Kelly's "wherever" meant menstrual blood. He calls them "sick" and "deviants". This is no longer just a media story. Trump is now attacking the viewers as well. How many people who heard Trump say "You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever," thought that he meant menstrual blood? My guess is that it's a large percentage. Trump just said all those people are sick and deviants. My guess is that most of them won't like being called names.
On the other side, we have Hillary Clinton actually thumbing her nose at a federal judge who wanted assurances under oath about her email and the server that housed that email. This is not a principled stand by a journalist who refuses to give up his sources. There is no big issue at stake here. This is just a woman who thinks she is above the law refusing to obey an order of a federal court. Remember, all Hillary had to do was to confirm under oath what the current status of her email is. In other words she just had to say that she had (1) turned roughly 30,000 email over to the State Department, (2) destroyed the rest, and (3) kept no copy of the ones that were destroyed. Hillary's aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin had to do make similar statements regarding their own email. It's just three pieces of paper that they had to sign, BUT THEY WON'T!!! This has gotten lost in the swirl of Trump nonsense, but it won't disappear. Hillary's refusal to go on the record as ordered by a federal judge is astounding.
Then there's the question whether Bernie's Life Matters (with or without the hashtag). Yesterday, a Bernie Sanders rally was broken up by a few demonstrators of the #BlackLivesMatter group. Since it was a Sanders rally, when the demonstrators started chanting, they were called to the stage and offered the chance to speak. After about ten minutes, when they were asked to relinquish the mike, they refused and called the crowd "liberal white supremacists". Rather than show any strength, Sanders just left without addressing the thousands who had come to hear him speak. Sanders showed that he is a prisoner of politically correct ideology. He just couldn't bring himself to have security take the mike back from those who were disrupting things. After all, if they were chanting black lives matter, they couldn't be disturbed.
There are more of these stories out there in the mix. They may tell us (1) that Trump is nasty and a bully, or (2) that Hillary is arrogant, self important, and a liar, or (3) that Sanders is too weak to confront demonstrators who disrupt his events. The problem, though, is that there are many key issues facing the country and the focus is not on them. For example, what about job creation and economic growth? These candidates won't even talk about the subject. What about the Iran nuclear agreement? Chuck Schumer now opposes it, but that issue which means life or death for millions takes a back seat to nasty remarks by the Donald. This far ahead of the election, can't we have a reasoned debate of the issues rather than a reality show format.
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