Did debate have a backstage heavy?
Who was that masked man under the Trump hair at Thursday night’s GOP debate?
Who was that guy who two or three times described his violent hooligans – er, loud supporters – as “an outpouring of love?”
Who was the man who said: “We’re all in this together, we’re going to find solutions to things,” then added that he could not believe “how civil it’s been up here.”
It’s true that Donald Trump looked a bit puny as he first trudged to the dais. The familiar scowl was there, but not the tan. Or even the flush. And his hair was mussed in the back.
But then it actually seemed as if all the candidates except John Kasich looked angry and chastened – like they’d been in a quarrel backstage.
And by the first commercial break, the chill was still in the air, but no one had talked about their anatomy or called one another a liar. They talked (dare I say it?) policy. Sort of. Though they stopped short of actually saying much of substance.
It almost made me wonder if a Saul Goodman-like person of “Better Call Saul” hadn’t shown up to pull each man aside to threaten disclosure of the mother-of-all-opposition-research unless these would-be presidents didn’t once and for all act like adults on the debate stage.
More likely:
> Trump didn’t want to slip up and botch his front-runner status. Besides, he’s practicing how to look “presidential.”
> Marco Rubio was still trying to recover from the backlash and regret of the “small hands” debacle.
> Ted Cruz planned to let Trump do the heavy lifting to narrow the field by taking Florida and pushing Rubio from the race.
> Kasich was already a grownup when the race began.
But, oh buddy: Wasn’t the thought of a political heavy tweaking their attitudes quite the satisfying fantasy?
Once again, it’s Obama’s fault
The “blame Obama” movement soared to new heights of ridiculousness last week when a reporter asked President Barack Obama in a Rose Garden news conference to respond to an establishment GOP postulation that he and his actions brought about the rise of Donald Trump.
“I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they’re selecting for their party is,” Obama said with a pause and grin, “novel.”
The press corps laughed. But the president was just getting warmed up.
“Objectively, it’s fair to say, that Republican political elites and many information outlets – social media, news outlets, talk radio, television stations – have been feeding the Republican base for the last seven years a notion that everything I do is to be opposed, that maximalist, absolutist positions on issues are politically advantageous, that there is a ‘them’ out there and an ‘us,'” Obama said. “The ‘them’ are causing whatever problems. The tone of that politics, which I certainly haven’t contributed to.
“I don’t think I was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate. I didn’t say why don’t you question whether I’m an American or whether I’m loyal,” the president noted.
It was so quiet, you could hear the pencils scrawl across the paper.
“What you’re seeing in the Republican Party is all those efforts, over the course of time, creating an environment where somebody like a Donald Trump can thrive,” Obama said. “He’s just doing more of what has been done for the last seven and a half years.
“I think it is very important for them to reflect on what it is about the politics they’ve engaged in that allows the circus we’ve been seeing transpire,” Obama said. “Ultimately, I want an effective Republican Party. This country has to have responsible parties that can govern, and that are prepared to lead and govern whether they’re in the minority or in the majority, whether they occupy the White House or they do not. And I’ve often said I want a serious, effective Republican Party – in part to challenge some of the blind spots and dogmas in the Democratic Party. I think that’s useful.”
The two faces of Donald Trump
As Ben Carson joined the dim bulbs of failed presidential hopefuls now endorsing Donald Trump, he told us something we already know – Trump is a two-faced reality-show snake oil salesman perfectly suited for GOP politics.
Carson didn’t say it quite that way, of course:
“There are two different Donald Trumps,” Carson intoned. “There’s the one you see on the stage, and there’s the one who’s very cerebral, sits there and considers things very carefully. You can have a very good conversation with him. That’s the Donald Trump that you’re going to start seeing more and more of right now.”
Trump, standing nearby, agreed.
You may recall that during the campaign, especially when Carson was climbing in the polls, Trump likened him to a child molester, questioned his religion and called him “super low energy.”
But during the endorsement, Carson said, “we buried the hatchet – that was political stuff.”
Boys and girls, can we say “politically correct?”