Drivebys cranking up the ‘idiot’ narrative
It’s a phenomenon we see every four years. The drive by media, in cooperation with their leftist allies, starts painting the portrait of the GOP presidential ticket as being the real-life inspiration for those “Dumb and Dumber” movies. Never mind the actual credentials of the GOP candidates. The Republicans could nominate Stephen Hawking and the drivebys would still find some way to question his intellect.
George W. Bush had degrees from Harvard AND Yale — and yet he was a “dummy.”
Barack Obama spoke passionately about visiting FIFTY-SEVEN American states and, while in Hawaii, about how great things are “here in Asia.” The drivebys tell us HE is brilliant.
Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails detailed for us the lengths her girl Huma had to go through to get Hillary to hang up the fax machine. We also learned that there was a process involving TEN different people just to get Ma Clinton some coffee. *AND she is, um, brilliant too.*
Disagreeing with someone does not make them an idiot. They have a different perspective than you do. (Being elevated to secretary of state, and not being able to comprehend hanging up the fax machine is another story altogether.)
Think about this: a person, with an MBA from the University of Pennylvania’s Wharton School of Business — (which is NO JOKE, nothing to sneeze at) — who takes an initial one million dollar investment and turns it into BILLIONS. Sounds like a person you would want to emulate or to even be pals with. Sounds like a top-notch, top-caliber person, huh? Well, THAT is your GOP nominee for president. Donald J. Trump.
So, what does T
he Washington Post come up with as a headline today as the GOP convention opens?: Donald Trump doesn’t read much. Being president probably wouldn’t change that.
That will evolve into *”Ooh, he CAN’T read. He needs pictures. And someone to help him sound the words out.”* That is SUCH an *important* question that every voter is dying to know. Screw taxes and regulations. WHAT, oh WHAT, is on The Donald’s nightstand?
Being here in Pinehurst, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with folks who have CEO’ed major corporations and have — on occasion — rubbed elbows with The Donald in social and business situations. Many of these folks — who happen to now be retired — tell me that NOW is the first time since college that they had time to actually sit down and read 
a book. As CEO of a major corporation, your day is wall-to-wall-to-wall meetings. You PAY people to do the reading and research and to advise you on the best next move.
In politics, there is a phenomenon known as “the vanity wall.” It typically features a bookshelf packed with some high-brow sounding titles and some photos of the office occupant with various and sundry “famous” people. I’ll give ten-to-one odds that most of these people have not read ANY of those books on that bookshelf cover-to-cover.
I think a track record is more telling in selecting a leader. We’re down to two likely choices for our next president. A guy whose blood, sweat and tears have turned ONE MILLION into BILLIONS and a woman who has lied, cheated, and stolen her way to the top — causing a little death and violence here and there along the way.
It’s not a tough choice for me.
We have let the media dictate who out GOP presidential nominees will be. In 2008 they selected McCain and in 2012 Romney, giving us a drumbeat during the primaries that they were ”inevitable” and ”electable”. Big Media gave them lots more coverage than more conservative challengers and thus put their finger on the scales for their annointed nominees in the primary. After, they got this pair through to getting the nominations, media flipped and went into all out attack mode.
Republicans should have learned our lesson.
In 2016, Big Media gave Trump a lot more coverage than anyone else. A lot more. They did it in a way to create support among the GOP base, with light attacks that got him sympathy from the GOP base. The media created the Trump phenomenon in order to once again steer who the GOP nominee would be, and once again, they go into full bore attack mode once they steer the bull to the slaughter.
We also saw who the media did not want, as they refused to give Ted Cruz the coverage he deserved. When Cruz became the first Hispanic candidate ever to win a state in a presidential primary in Iowa, the media spin was about Rubio running third, trying to give him the momentum instead of Cruz. They would have probably tried to twist it to Trump but could not as Trump had been in first place in the polls and that would not have been credible when he came in second.
Media wants a GOP nominee they think they can beat in November. McCain and Romney clearly filled that bill early on, and they think Trump will, too.
While Trump can handle a media that is trying to win him the nomination, I am not confidant he can handle a media that is out to be sure he does not win in November. Cruz was our candidate who was most adept at handling a hostile media. In a two way race, they would have been forced to cover him, which they tried not to do in the primaries.
I do not know that Trump can be trusted on issues, but I will keep my fingers crossed and vote for him. I do not want to see the media triumph in their little game a third time.
When Trump puts up (and then immediately takes down) a logo that looks like one of the more outrageous floats at a Gay Pride parade, or when Trump staffers put up (and then immediately take down), big “White Elevator” signs at the convention, it’s kinda hard to keep the word “idiots” from springing to mind.
Kind of like everything you hear out of the Hitlary camp. Whenever you hear anything out of that side the first word to come to mind is “morons”.
Anyone who is committed to voting for Hillary OR contemplating voting for her is living proof that Einstein was right.That being, the difference between genius and stupidity is that stupidity has no limit.
Browny Douglas
At least there us some hope that a VP Pence might have a positive influence on a Pres. Trump. There is no chance anything good would come from Hillary and her crowd. I wanted Cruz, but we simply must not have Hillary. So that only leaves us Trump. I don’t doubt your theory of media intent. I just pray they fail this time.
Yes, /agree the left always portrays those on the right as stupid and backwards, and often it’s not at all deserved.
Yes, also /agree that Hillary Clinton’s intellect is over-blown. She can’t handle email and coffee, but somehow the Presidency isn’t too daunting? *sheesh*
But I’ve seen nothing from Donald Trump to indicate he’s all that bright… He’s a lot of things, some good, some bad, but he doesnt come off as an intelligent guy. I think the phrase “intellectually incurious” seems like a good description for Trump.
He doesnt know or seem to care about putting much thought into understanding issues and problems. When it comes to the basic issues of the day, I think he just lacks a lot of fundamental knowledge. Whenever he’s pushed past his basic talking points and slogans, it becomes obvious he has no idea what he’s talking about, most every time.
Voting for him to stop Hillary is certainly a viable argument… but I dont know that this particular smear is really “wrong”.
The idiot narrative would certainly apply to the destructive hardball that Priebus and Manafort played yesterday. It was like ”we are going to have unity if we have to beat your brains out and leave blood all over the floor to do it”. The result was a massive display of power politics and disunity that hurt the party and hurt Trump. The TV was on at my wife’s place of work and said it had a huge negative effect on everyone – Democrats were laughing at us while Republicans were discouraged and hanging their heads. Letting matters come to a free and fair vote, however it came out, would not have shown disunity like the cram down that Preibus and Manafort orchestrated.
Some individual instances that the major media did not pick up on but have been on the internet show the depth of feeling. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a staunch grassroots conservative had been trying to do a deal to get fairer rules for the 2020 cycle and was willing to give Trump what he wanted on rules for this one to do it, but was snubbed in committee by Priebus. When the bare knuckle cramdown on the rules vote happened, Cuccinellii threw his credentials on the floor in disgust and walked out of the convention.
Priebus should be fired from RNC and Manafort by Trump. They are doing more harm than good.
It has also come out than Manafort is abusing his position in Trump’s campaign to pull strings from some of his old discredited clients like the former pro-Russian dictator of Ukraine, who had to flee a popular uprising. Manafort’s minions strrongarmed the Platform Committee to remove language opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is shameful and disgusting.
Personally, if it comes down to my being unable to vote for Trump on election day, and I am not to that point yet, the biggest reason will be named Paul Manafort.