Jump to content

The Politics Thread


Recommended Posts

  • Members

I think most of the outlets are turning on Trump, actually, now that we're facing the general. The attention has gotten much more focused and critical, as the Beltway has begun to realize this is really dangerous and they have to cut the [!@#$%^&*]. That's what got us the various pieces from NBC and the print journalists in the last few weeks that have just torn Trump up about his business dealings. Last week MSNBC cut away from Trump's rambling pressers to go to Hillary. I've never seen that happen before, and it is a sea change that means something.

 

They still want a horse race narrative, of course; they always do. But it's most embodied by disgusting entrenched hack Mark Halperin, who wrote a great dishy book (Game Change) with his buddy John Heilemann but is still the conservative sympathizer who called Obama "kind of a dick" on live TV.

 

Halperin and Heilemann have a docuseries, The Circus, premiering on Showtime shortly following all the candidates around this year, but that's not the story here. The story is how closely Halperin seems to have become personally attached to Donald Trump after following him on the trail over the last year, a la the rest of the press' long love affair with John McCain - there's a ton of cozy photos of them together, and he has a long track record of defending Trump's many foibles in the face of incredulity from even the Morning Joe crew, like the time a while back when he insisted Trump could take California and then when he claimed Trump's comments about Mexicans weren't racist. Or the time he all but did a direct address to the camera begging Trump to tone it down, promising the media could side with him against Clinton if only he weren't so mean to them.

 

Anyway: Halperin got roasted the other day for his latest in a series of 'what if?' tweets trying to create a narrative for Trump to become the nation's hero. Here's the glorious deets. Enjoy. The good news is, Halperin's the only one out there stumping in the mainstream. The rest of the media doesn't seem to be trying too hard for the horse race here, possibly because they (like me) suspect Trump will not be the candidate after all.

 

Unrelated: Mediaite noticed this, which I didn't - buried in a piece comparing Trump to Romney's troubles, the NYT again hints Trump is too broke to campaign.

Edited by Vee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 41.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Vee

    5830

  • DRW50

    5600

  • DramatistDreamer

    5288

  • Khan

    3202

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

  • Members

Halperin has always struggled to hide his right-leaning tendencies. He used to run a site for ABC called The Note that extolled the virtues of Rove-era Republicans and their genius strategies, while pushing the "Democrats in disarray" narrative at the same time. I'm surprised he's into Trump, but then, a lot of people in the Beltway seem to have gotten into that starfucker type of mindset.

 

Anyway, here's an example of the type of blatant hate that Trump followers give on the local level - encouraging hatred and bile against a church just for having a message about Ramadan.

 

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/matt-jansen-chris-rodkey-blessed-ramadan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The rare 'Opposite Trump' is out in force right now doing his get Hillary speech live - he's telepromptered up the wazoo, completely on-book and just using GOP boilerplate lines, not his own. It always sounds very fake and the antithesis of himself (and his appeal to his base), but I suspect it will reenergize the horse race narrative briefly and people will once again claim Trump has finally pivoted to the GE. That said, he's also still lying incessantly.

 

I think the hope for 'New Trump' will last maybe 12 hours. He'll do something else insane by Friday at the latest, this is how he always works. One mediocre speech makes the media think he's finally changed, then he goes ape again. It happened most recently a week or two ago.

Edited by Vee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy