This is really interesting stuff. Redstate (which is undergoing a kind of identity crisis since it loathes Trump but loves everything else conservative) was complaining about these headlines are going too far. The truth is, though, that most people don’t pay much attention past the headline, and a big part of Trump’s strategy is to say something ludicrous and excpect that people will only pay attention to the headline.
“Oh yeah, I saw a headline yesterday that said Trump saw that video.”
It’s about time the news media got more aggressive with baldfaced lies - and I’m good with it no matter the candidate.
Agreed, but the thing is: Trump is unique in that he routinely makes laughably false statements. His “facts” are often proven to be lies with little to no research. I think CNN’s tactic is a great idea - for Trump. But something tells me this wouldn’t work as well with most other candidates, who may fudge a fact here or there, but don’t often make things up out of whole cloth the way Trump does six times before lunch.
And there’s a very simple “fix” for this from the other side. Fox News just starts doing it with democratic candidates, but lying in the headline. “Independent investigation reports Clinton did not issue stand down in Benghazi (she did)”.
On Fox News yesterday, Trump questioned whether he really needed to put much effort into getting out the vote. Via TPM:
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has just one field office in all of Florida, the state party leaders are barely even saying his name in their own campaign offices, and Clinton is outspending him in ads in the state $20M - $500K (cite). It’s not looking much better in Ohio, where Trump has no operation on the ground in Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati (cite). For reference, I lived in Cincinnati in 2008. The Obama campaign ran a bus shuttle from several stronghold areas to the local election office, beginning on the day early voting opened and continuing throughout the election. I would have voted in any case, but it was nice to have a ride. Parking downtown would have sucked.
I haven’t bothered to read Trump’s campaign finance reports. I’m sure they go into detail about how he’s spending his money. Has anyone else looked at them? What the hell is he spending his cash on? As far as actual campaigning, the dude’s just phoning it in.
According to Politico, Trump is pushing the RNC to open field offices in every states – something the RNC rightfully feels is a huge waste of money and staff since Alabama isn’t going to go Clinton and Hawaii isn’t going to go Trump no matter who they have there. The compromise position seems to be twenty-five offices in more competitive states with paid staff and twenty-five volunteer offices in the remaining states.
Ironically, the Trump campaign is closing their own campaign office in New Jersey.
Oh, yeah, hey… I’m “working on” hacking Trump’s tax returns too! Yup, just sittin’ here, hacking away. I’ll have them for you any day now so you all just talk about how fair and unbiased I’m being and I’ll just keep on with all this hard core hacking that I’m totally doing.
Not sure if this has been posted yet: Politico reports that a group of prominent Republicans is writing a letter to the RNC, urging them to cut off funding for Trump and focus funding solely on the House and vulnerable Senate seats: Dozens of Republicans to urge RNC to cut off funds for Trump
Politico reports seeing a draft of the letter:
[QUOTE=Bunch of really pissed off Republicans]
“We believe that Donald Trump’s divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity risk turning this election into a Democratic landslide, and only the immediate shift of all available RNC resources to vulnerable Senate and House races will prevent the GOP from drowning with a Trump-emblazoned anchor around its neck,” states a draft of the letter obtained by POLITICO. “This should not be a difficult decision, as Donald Trump’s chances of being elected president are evaporating by the day.”
…
“Those recent outrages have built on his campaign of anger and exclusion, during which he has mocked and offended millions of voters, including the disabled, women, Muslims, immigrants, and minorities,” the letter states. “He also has shown dangerous authoritarian tendencies, including threats to ban an entire religion from entering the country, order the military to break the law by torturing prisoners, kill the families of suspected terrorists, track law-abiding Muslim citizens in databases, and use executive orders to implement other illegal and unconstitutional measures.”
I will also predict that I will spend over $500, easily, on all the tell-all and analysis books that will come out of this campaign. I haven’t looked forward to a media push like this since the 2008 Financial Crisis.
No worries. I’m sure Chris Christie and his legions will be working super hard to help The Donald.
Yes! I can’t wait for the next Heilemann and Halperin Game Change book - the first two were great, and reading all about what was really going on behind the scenes aboard the Trumptanic is, I’m sure, going to be a hoot.
