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Sunday, March 20, 2016

The Choice is Hard To Believe

As the primary season moves towards its conclusion, it's hard to believe that we ended up with a choice like the one facing us in November.  We can pick a woman who thinks that the laws don't apply to her, that the American people will believe anything she says no matter how obvious a lie, that anger is a campaign style, that she can use her position to squeeze cash out of those who want to buy her influence and that she can satisfy Americans by saying the "right thing" no matter what she does.  Alternatively, we can pick a man who thinks that the American people will believe anything he says no matter how obvious a lie, that it's possible to throw verbal bombs and insults at people without leaving permanent scars on both the target and the public, that anger is a campaign style, and that denial still works as a defense in the age of videotape.  These are two extremely unappealing people.  Let me put it this way:  how many men in America did not think to themselves during the Lewinsky days "Given who Hillary is, I can understand why Bill did what he did."  Pollsters used to ask voters with whom they "would rather have a beer".  No one would want to have a beer with Hillary unless the other choice was having an arm or leg amputated.

Trump, on the other hand, would be interesting to spend time with.  It would be like having a floor show right there in the bar while drinking that beer.  Still, there's only a small group of people who would have met Donald Trump two years ago and thought to themselves that Trump would make a great president.  I mean can you picture Trump meeting German chancellor Angela Merkel and telling her that she should consider having some work done.  Can you picture him telling Queen Elizabeth II that her dress really makes her butt look big?  It's not hard to do that.

Since we don't have the luxury of picking someone who looks or acts the part of president, we will all have to focus on who will do the best things for the future of the country.  With Hillary, we know that we will get more of the same combined with never-ending scandals and some schemes to make the Clintons more money.  With Trump, it's less than clear what we would get except regarding the economy (where his plans are extremely good) and immigration (where he is likely to actually build the wall.) 

How did we get here?

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