Donald Trump announces presidential run

Politics & Elections
361

So you agree with the sentiment, just not the phrasing? How should he have more delicately phrased the thought? I don’t see it as anything but the pettiness of Donald J. Trump shining through.

As I understand the video, Trump’s intemperate War Hero remark was an “off the cuff” sort of *fuck you *to McCain, and not a part of some prepared speech. In other words, the host mentioned McCain, and Trump’s reaction was fuck that guy, but it came out as he’s not a hero. Then, as is his wont, he doubled down with the he’s only a hero because he got captured part, because Trump is a petty man with a bad temper who is used to sycophantic devotion, which he’ll not be getting as an elected politician of any office, let alone President of the United States.

The idea that anybody of his demeanor could conceivably be qualified to be President is ludicrous. The President, in theory, works for us, the people, right? I said, in theory. So, this is our time to interview candidates. If a blowhard like this came into your office to interview for the General Manager position, and sat next to all of the cerebral types and glad-handers, would you ever hire him to run your business. Really?

Electing Trump is like hiring Biff Tannen to run a bakery in Oregon. You’d literally have to go back in time and change the result to prevent a schism in the Universe.

362

As Mr. Trump is literally a Christ, having the attractive Miss Coulter as his vice-president would distract him from his Destiny, ‘tempted in every way’, tempting him to break his marriage bond and make her his wife, leading to the birth of a child whose bloodline would dominate the world through crappy conspiracy stories and awful fiction sold in airports and supermarkets everywhere.

Palin — Trump 2016 !

363

I thought Kim Kardashian was already born!

364

Trump - Coulter!
Trump - Coulter!
Trump - Coulter!
Trump - Coulter!

365

Bolding in the quote was done by me.

I can’t believe I’m the first person to say this, but in no way, shape, or form does Nugent have anything close to rational politics. Crapping your pants and wearing them to the draft hearing (allegedly…he has recanted the story) isn’t “rational politics.” Among some of his other nuggets of “rational politics:”

“Every hateful statement ever made about me is a dirty lie.”

“A president who is an avowed racist who claimed because Trayvon Martin was Black — even though he was a gangster, an attacker and a doper — could have been his son. Really?”

“I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America,”

Speaking at a NRA conference in 2012: “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” Alluding to the American Revolution, he added, “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November.”

In a July 1990 interview with Detroit Free Press Magazine: “My being there (South Africa) isn’t going to affect any political structure. Besides, apartheid isn’t that cut-and-dry. All men are not created equal.”

“Hey, Obama. You might wanna suck on one of these, you punk,” Nugent said while waving two machine guns in the air during at one of his 2008 concerts. Turning his attention to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Nugent added, “Hillary, you might wanna ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless b—h.”

“There will come a time when the gun owners of America, the law-abiding gun owners of America, will be the Rosa Parks and we will sit down on the front seat of the bus, case closed,”

Anyone, in my opinion, who thinks that Ted Nugent displays “rational politics” is obviously needing YEARS of psychiatric help.

366

He’s what happens when someone throws themselves headlong into sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll but neglects the drugs. American youth should take a stern lesson.

367

The lesson that he still has his money, teeth, health and family? That he hasn’t subjected his family and loved ones to the endless grief, sorrow and frustration that comes from loving a drug addict? Or maybe the fact that he doesn’t have a rap sheet a mile long?

Yes, there are certainly lessons to be learned from the fact that Nugent doesn’t do drugs, but I doubt they’re the ones you had in mind.

Drugs really aren’t all that cool, luci. Even Grace Slick has admitted that her generation got it wrong when it came to drug use, and if you and your left wing brethren were anywhere near as concerned about human suffering as your vaunted liberal values toward all the different “isms” of the world suggest, you’d stop trying to portray them that way.

368

I read someone tweet that trumps campaign is like an internet comment section exploded in front of media.

369

I’m European so maybe that explains why I don’t understand how Trump is allowed or bothers to stand.

It’s a political job right, dealing with national issues and international leaders - where judgement and experience is crucial to the interests of the nation ?

This is a guy who made money from his dad making money and then went on The Apprentice copying the style of the UK guy?

Why would - literally - anyone listen to him never mind vote for him? It just doesn’t make sense in any way I can understand?

370

Of course it doesn’t make sense to someone who elects representatives to run the nation’s affairs. Our system requires us instead to elect someone who will do battle against the representatives of people who feel differently. Little governance is actually performed and, thus, valued.

Ours really is a system whose performance has been surpassed by others.

371

Good commentary about Trump’s contribution to the Republican cause. The last line pretty much sums it up.
Trump’s lack of tact and decorum shows he’s really just out for himself, adds Gil Troy, a politics professor at McGill University and an expert on U.S. presidential campaigns. "I don’t think he cares about the Republican Party — he belongs to the Party of Trump.

… there has been growing talk that Trump could run as an independent, which many political observers say could cut into the Republican vote, the way it did for George H.W. Bush in 1992, when billionaire Ross Perot’s candidacy split the conservative vote for the benefit of Bill Clinton.

But Troy says that it’s foolish to try and predict Trump’s next move. In fact, Troy says he can envision a scenario where Trump loses the GOP’s nomination to someone like Jeb Bush, but instead of throwing his support behind the Republican nominee, ends up backing Hillary Clinton "just because she’s a more famous name and it’ll get him more headlines.

“Celebrity politics are not national politics, they’re not responsible politics and they’re not mature politics,” he says.

372

In terms of the big picture, we have weak parties and a primary system: effectively nobody can stop Trump from pursuing the GOP nomination.

I don’t know what Trump’s game is. But running in the GOP primaries is a stepping stone to a Fox News contract (which Huckabee secured after his 2008 run) as well as speaking fees on the convention circuit (Palin and others). There are multiple motivations for running. 1. You want to be President, 2. You hope to be selected as Vice President, 3. You hope to come in 2nd and angle for a nomination in a future year, 4. You want to push a POV (see the Ron and Rand Paul family) 5. You want a Fox News contract/you want to build a mailing list that you can sell to various scammers (Huckabee). 6. You are building your personal brand (Trump, though I honestly don’t understand this angle).

Without ancillary factors, the GOP field would cap out at 8 at most. More likely 4 to 6.

373

Oh okay, that’s interesting. maybe he does have an angle but, to be honest, he also seems a little unstable so perhaps his angle is a little obtuse …

374

He’s not unstable, so much as he has the biggest ego anyone has ever seen.

375

He’s allowed to because anyone who meets the minimal legal eligibility standards for the office is allowed to. He’s doing it to stroke his own ego, which is massive enough to have its own gravitational field. People pay attention to him out of the same fascination people have for train wrecks. He’s contributing to that by rabblerousing, making the statements he considers most likely to keep himself on TV, a skill he has honed well over the years.

That would put you in the majority in the US, too. It isn’t about sense or understandability, just his ego and many Americans’ racism.

376

After the latest thing involving Lindsey Graham’s phone number, I am actually wondering if Trump is showing signs of Alzheimer’s or some other neurological disorder.

377

Naw, just a jackass, like Graham says.

378

Or maybe he is rooting for Lindsey Graham? Graham’s getting more attention now than ever.

Of course, what would really suck would be if Trump gave out Graham’s phone number and no one called him.

379

It’s all about Trump’s ego. All of it. I suspect that, deep down, he knows he’ll never be elected President, but he really, really enjoys all the attention and the chance to spout off whatever nonsense pops into his head, moment by moment, knowing that the cameras and microphones are drinking it all in.

380

I think with the phone number thing, along with the McCain comment, he’s just out to troll people. That he can do it and get attention despite his absolute tastelessness proves to himself that he’s clearly the most important person ever. I’m glad that the polls show that well over a majority of people would absolutely never vote for him, but I’m really scared about the level of attention this kind of “campaign” is getting.