By Joan Swirsky — Bio and Archives
Sure enough, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump racked up impressive statistics in his Fox News debate tonight, effectively trouncing the competition that included Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Once again, however, Fox’s Megyn “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” Kelly ambushed Mr. Trump by falsely stating that the Better Business Bureau had given Trump University a D-minus rating, when in fact it’s rating is, as Trump asserted, an A!
The same trouncing happened last week when Trump’s victories in the primaries garnered him the lion’s share of electoral votes by winning Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Virginia, which, according to Philip Bump of The Washington Post, “no Republican has ever won…going back to 1960.”
Both pundits and pollsters attributed the massive turn-outs to Mr. Trump’s having excited, inspired and therefore mobilized the electorate—in some cases well over 100% increase above the 2012 midterms. In one instance, Mr. Trump beat Sen. Cruz by 450,000 votes; in another he beat Sen. Rubio by over a million votes! According to writers Bill Barrow and Emily Swanson, Trump had “significant support across educational, ideological, age and income classifications.”
In his victory speech last week, looking and sounding presidential, Mr. Trump accurately proclaimed: “We have expanded the Republican Party.”
This ought to have been music to the ears of Republicans everywhere, especially “establishment” types who constantly seek to attract influential voting blocs comprised of African-Americans, Hispanics, and young people, all of whom—mysteriously, incomprehensibly, self-destructively—have huddled under the Democrat tent for decades, gaining not a micrometer of progress in their personal lives, wages, schools, crime rates, the pathetic list is endless.
Trump, only nine months into being a politician, has accomplished this incredible feat. But the more he succeeds, the more the Grand Poobahs of the Grand Old Party, as well as the media (both right and left), have devolved into what appears to be a clinical state of hysteria.
Think about this. Barack Obama’s record violates every principle and value that Republicans and Conservatives claim they stand for. Under his watch, we have…
- 94-million unemployed Americans
- An almost-insurmountable debt of nearly $20 trillion
- Borders so porous that not thousands but millions of unvetted and potentially murderous illegal aliens (i.e., jihadists) have been able to invade our shores and set up their U.S.-government-dependent shop in sanctuary cities around our nation
- A severely diminished military and nothing less than vile treatment of our veterans
- Trampling on the Constitution
- Bypassing Congress to act unilaterally (and illegally)
- Appeasing our enemies and spitting at our allies
…and yet those same Republicans and Conservatives—in full control of the Senate and House—have been notably absent in mustering up anything more than mild rebuke to counter Mr. Obama’s assaults on our country.
But to them, Trump is the real threat!
BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES
That’s what the frenzied GOP, media, and also-rans are trying to do, figuratively closing any openings in what they believe is their own personal Ship of State now that the threatening weather called Donald Trump is upon them. They are in a state of impotent horror, given their abject failure—in spite of multimillions spent and generous media assistance—to stem the Trump juggernaut.
Ironic, isn’t it. If any entity deserves a comeuppance, it is the very arrogant, go-along-to-get-along, ineffectual, leftist-whipped, emasculated, cave-to-Obama, bow-to-the-lobbyists, accommodate-the-Arab-lobby establishment!
Impotent? Emasculated? Yes, money and power are mighty motivators, but it is a tacit acknowledgment of their own sissified selves that is now spurring Trump’s critics into action.
And they’re trying their damnedest!
On March 2, a gaggle of Republican national security leaders—no doubt many of them members of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations whose animating raison d’»átre would be threatened by a Trump presidency—wrote an open letter to Trump expressing their “united opposition” to his candidacy.”
They don’t like his “vision of American influence and power in the world….advocacy for aggressively waging trade wars…rhetoric [that] undercuts the seriousness of combating Islamic radicalism…insistence that Mexico will fund a wall on the southern border…,” on and on. Comical, isn’t it, that everything they’ve failed to address with any seriousness or success compels them to slam the guy who promises to address those issues and succeed.
On March 3, 22 Republicans—including philandering Congressman Mark Sanford and the execrable Glenn Beck—declared that they would not vote for Trump.
August writers like the Wall St. Journal’s Bret Stephens have been apoplectic about Trump for months, sparing no slur or invective. Author and military historian Max Boot has dug deep into his assault repertoire to make sure no insult has gone unhurled. And the usually dazzling Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review Online is simply unable to contain his hostility to Trump’s candidacy, just as most of the other writers at NRO have jumped on the anti-Trump bandwagon. And that’s not to omit the florid hysteria emanating fromCommentarymagazine.com.
On March 4, desperate anti-Trump operatives pimped out good ole patsy Mitt Romney to go before a teleprompter and read the words written for him by an anti-Trump operative. So sad—a man who once had class.
But no one forgot that Romney, a lifelong liberal, lost both senatorial and presidential elections and that the last image of him—etched indelibly in the American public’s consciousness—was of him debating his rival for the presidency, Barack Obama, and simply folding like a cheap suit!
Romney—who The Wall St. Journal called “a flawed messenger”—didn’t look or sound like he had dementia, so it’s strange indeed that he barely mentioned the endorsement Trump gave him for his campaign for president, and the lavish praise he heaped upon Trump.
Romney’s hit job evoked the following 22-word, devastating and well-deserved tweet from Trump: “Looks like two-time failed candidate Mitt Romney is going to be telling Republicans how to get elected. Not a good messenger!”
All of the abovementioned people—and dozens I haven’t named—are growing frustrated that their old tricks of marginalizing and finally destroying the target in question haven’t worked. They long to emulate the JournOlist of 2007, when over-400 members of the leftist media colluded to quash any and every criticism or fact-based doubt about Mr. Obama’s Constitutional eligibility to hold office, to intimidate any critic into silence.
To this day, has anyone seen even one of Barack Obama’s college transcripts, his marriage license, a doctor’s evaluation? Now it’s the Republicans—actually those cocktail-swigging “conservatives” who routinely cozy up to the lobbyists they’re beholden to—who have gotten together to defeat Trump. These feckless so-called leaders decided that their target, a self-funded former liberal, was worth more of their negative, insult-laden literary output and passionate commentary than the Marxist-driven, jihadist-defending, anti-Constitutional, anti-American regime in power.
If you ever wonder how this could happen, why Republicans and self-described Conservatives could rebel so ferociously against a candidate who promises to strengthen our military, bring jobs and industry back to America, seal our borders against the onslaught of illegal aliens, and make America great again, wonder no more.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Doesn’t it always come down to money? Money leads to power and influence and control, all of which politicians—that too-often pliable and buyable species—lust for. It’s not only the ephemeral day-to-day power they fear losing, it’s the entire network they’re enmeshed in, which involves all the treaties and deals and “arrangements” they’ve signed onto and the pelf it promises to keep on yielding (for Exhibit No. 1, see The Clinton Foundation and the mountain of cash it reaps).
Imagine their fear of a president who actually cuts the pork, actually strikes deals that don’t line his own pockets, actually exposes the bad deals that have been made by the bad players in Washington, D.C. Imagine what Trump will learn about the massive under-the-table, self-serving deals that were made in the Iran deal and others.
The same lust for power applies to media moguls whose wealth is not limited to TV stations and newspapers but to the very deals made by government and on Wall St. No one knows this better than Mr. Trump, the author of the mega-bestseller, The Art of the Deal. That’s why his critics are so terrified. They pretend to be offended by the kind of comment or gesture that they themselves express routinely. But they’re really afraid of being in the presence of someone who is utterly immune to either their blandishments or strong-arm tactics.
Roger Stone, a former advisor to Mr. Trump, told writer S. Noble at WorldNetDaily.com, that the perceived threat is so real that “The GOP establishment would rather suffer through four years of Hillary—whose policies are indistinguishable from Marco Rubio’s or Mitt Romney’s—than to have an outsider be president, like Trump who is beholden to no one.”
As Mark Cunningham wrote in the New York Post: “All the noise about Donald Trump’s ‚Äòhostile takeover’ of the Republican Party misses a key point: Such takeovers only succeed when existing management has failed massively. And that’s true of both the GOP and the conservative movement. Trump’s a disrupter‚Äîbut most of the fire aimed his way is just shooting the messenger.”
Monica Crowley, editor of online opinion at The Washington Times, explains that the “emotionally fragile Republican ruling class” deluded themselves into thinking that Mr. Trump couldn’t possibly win. “Then actual voting began. And the first-timer, the brash anti-politician, began racking up resounding victories…”
In addition, Crowley writes: “Like his style or not,Mr. Trump is an in-your-face guy. Voters want that kind of guy taking it to President Obama’s record, [to] Hillary Clinton…and to the unbridled, destructive leftism that has rendered America virtually unrecognizable.” And, I might add, taking it to the wimps in the GOP!
Former Governor Mike Huckabee told Fox News that Donald Trump’s success represents a peaceful “overthrow of the government” and that the Republican establishment should be glad it’s being achieved with “ballots not bullets.” He added that the Trump phenomenon was a “political revolution in the Republican Party and in the country.”
Goldman Sachs gave Cruz nothing. He margined his equities, a standard procedure available to any retail client possessing a leveraged brokerage account.
The phenomenally embarrassing financial ignorance contained in your blockquoted sentence above explains why you now feel compelled to use an alias.
@ Laura:
Cruz is in the pocket of Texas oil interests and Goldman Sachs thru his wife and they gave him a million dollars to boot how much thru other subsidiaries??? Your guess..
Why did Ted Cruz give Obama executive action on Iran? Senator Cruz on Iran is a blunder so historical it leaves me scratching my head. Ted Cruz spoke powerfully, as have most of the GOP presidential candidates, as to the reasons why the Iran deal should never have been agreed to. He listed the reasons why it is so morally objectionable. He articulated the very essence of why the American people know beyond any doubt that it is the single biggest foreign policy mistake made in our lifetimes. He properly communicated why it will be seen historically as worse than Neville Chamberlain upon his return from Munich in 1938.
So imagine most Americans’ surprise when they learn that Cruz actually voted to do the opposite of what every American wanted done with the deal: make it a treaty, enforceable under real congressional teeth. Americans did not want to let President Obama use his “pen and phone”-style executive order to wield foreign policy insanity.
But that’s what the senator voted for in May of this year.
| It’s the single-most vital terror-related issue of our lifetime – and Cruz voted to do the opposite of what every American wanted done with the deal. Maybe he can explain why in this week’s debate.
This primary season has been full of blunders. Some from being less than knowledgeable about areas of expertise that they are still getting up to speed on. Others from pretending to be something they are not. Some from treating nearly every woman he speaks about as though she’s an ex-wife who just took him to court.
Some blunders have less historical significance.
Others are recorded in Senate history for posterity.
Senator Cruz on Iran is a blunder so historical it leaves me scratching my head.
Senator Cruz and Donald Trump were the keynote speakers at last week’s “Stop Iran Rally.” And while the rally posted lower turnout than the numbers of the original rally in New York City, they still received national attention and massive TV presence.
Ted Cruz spoke powerfully, as have most of the GOP presidential candidates, as to the reasons why the Iran deal should never have been agreed to. He listed the reasons why it is so morally objectionable. He articulated the very essence of why the American people know beyond any doubt that it is the single biggest foreign policy mistake made in our lifetimes. He properly communicated why it will be seen historically as worse than Neville Chamberlain upon his return from Munich in 1938.
So imagine most Americans’ surprise when they learn that Cruz actually voted to do the opposite of what every American wanted done with the deal: make it a treaty, enforceable under real congressional teeth. Americans did not want to let President Obama use his “pen and phone”-style executive order to wield foreign policy insanity.
But that’s what the senator voted for in May of this year.
I found it incredulous to even comprehend. I read the senator’s quote attempting to defend the action – but at the end of the day, the facts were: Senator Cruz voted in favor of giving President Obama the right to treat the “treaty” with Iran as nothing more than an executive order, rendering Congress completely useless in the process.
My mind did return to the day I heard Josh Earnest snickering from the White House press room about how they didn’t have to even go to Congress, that Congress was more or less unimportant to the deliberation’s outcome.
Turns out he was right – and in an action so bizarre, Senator Ted Cruz not only voted in favor of it happening that way, but he actually co-authored the language of the legislation that made it all possible.
In his defense, the senator claimed that by voting in the overwhelming majority to give President Obama the right to make it an executive action that he was “hoping to slow down the process.” The implication being he hoped to buy time to convince senators to influence the hardened chief executive to change the outcome.
But why would they, when he just voted to legally allow them to not have to worry about it?
The bait-and-switch never even made sense. If Congress allowed the president to treat it as an executive action – thus forgoing their constitutional role in approving treaties – then the vote threshold was merely 51 votes to pass instead of the 67 for treaties.
Cruz couldn’t have changed the outcome by voting against Obama being given executive action power. But he could have claimed the victory in principle.
Only the brave and honorable Tom Cotton from Arkansas voted against doing so, screaming from the Senate floor why treaties should never be handled in such a manner. It’s just hard to fathom how one can claim to be the principled. He sold Israel and our security under the bus. Principled my ass!!!
http://www.onenewsnow.com/perspectives/kevin-mccullough/2015/09/14/why-did-ted-cruz-give-obama-executive-action-on-iran
Soros on the far left is far more toxic than the NAZI on the right and he supports left and far left agendas. Any name calling for Hilary or Bernie????
I am surprised by the poverty of people vocabulary!
Flexibility is not equal to flip flopping just as one example. But many mass media journalists don’t even know how to talk on TV! This must be the reflection of the great US liberal-based education!!!
Felix Quigley Said:
What? Trump has zero principles while Cruz is the most principled candidate in this race. Trump has flip flopped all over the place while Cruz has been holding steadfast to conservative ideals.
@ Felix Quigley:
My evidence comes from the tweets I’m receiving. My full name is on display on my Twitter account, plus I have a “stand with Israel” displayed. Sometimes in response to my criticisms of Trump I get antisemitic tweets.
Now this does not mean I am claiming Trump is a nazi. Of course he isn’t, nor are the vast majority of his supporters. That’s not what I’m implying. But he does seem to be resonating with white supremacists, though they may be a small fraction of his support base. But they are making themselves visible in this campaign. Populism seems to appeal to antisemites.
Interesting Trump gets support from KKK, Nation of Islam and our regular Israpundit commentator Communist supporter Mr. Felix. Strange power that Trump hair.
The power of hate speech directed at those people others also do not tolerate. Trump is an interesting uniter!
@ Felix Quigley
Ok. You could be correct. Trump has made numerous errors which he will need to correct. For example the mocking of the disabled reporter. That was horrible and the longer Trump leaves that unresolved the stronger the issue will come back to haunt him at the worst possible time. All Trump has to say is he was just reacting to the guy’s temperament, melodramatic and wildly comically hysterical, to the point where Trump may have been baited; rather than any physical attributes, which were entirely coincidental. Not an apology, but an explanation, a plausible one.
However, who could you imagine who would provide the benefits of Cruz to Trump? First it hands Trump the nomination NOW, allowing him to focus on Clinton, assuming Rubio goes down and out.
It undercuts the quisling Romney’s baloney. There will be a profound backlash against Romney and all of whom he represents in the gop establishment, the lying losers.
Cruz would lend Trump legitimacy in the GOP, he is compiling now a list of supporters, Christie, Palin; whether Cruz is popular or not. Cruz is a go to attorney for Trump on any kind of brainstorming. Trump and Cruz will discuss The Iran Nuclear Deal. Cruz may make certain demands, like I need to see The Iran Deal torn up to shreds the first day after Obama vacates the premises and The Embassy relocated to Jerusalem.
To which Trump may ask, ok, explain to me how we can do that and in fine detail and be protected from the humiliation of being overturned at some juncture, go ahead, prove it to my attorney’s as well, because I have no problem with that as long as it is air tight, 100%. Now the moving of the embassy, Trump may say, I have already stated I would consider that, if for example Abbas balks at immediately ending the incitement, ending the financial support of terrorists and their families, renaming the sports stadiums and streets etc. named after terrorists and recognition of Israel as a Jewish homeland, with a right to defensible borders and the limits on sovereignty of the foreigners who speak the language of the Persian gulf. Abbas will accept none of it and Trump will have to deal with the reality, Israeli annexation.
All politicians can be construed as “sneaky”. That is just a convenient way to vilify, for example, every right wing Israeli PM, Begin, Shamir, Netanyahu are by definition, sneaky. While all of the labor PMs were “peace makers” or “statesmen”. Especially Begin and it all began with Ben Gurion.
Cruz will take votes from Hilary, Spanish speaking ones.
WoolyMammoth
As Jared Israel once said re Milosevic demonisation, the obligatory swipe at Trump.
If he wins nomination you think he will chose cruz. Doubt that. Trump is no fool, has principles and Cruz is a sneak as evidenced in many things especially not backing the call to ban Muslims
Babushka
You mean modern day capitalism but you are too pc to say it. Justify if you can not using the Word capitalism. Would it offend your Friends?
Laura writes.
You produce no evidence of this. This is too vague to be anything but mischievous and possibly misleading.
Plus in massive elections like this all kinds of people come out of the woodwork.
The clear implication Laura is that you are saying that Trump is either a Nazi, or he has Nazi leanings.
Now you better explain what you mean by “Nazi” (because this term is often misused) and where Trump stands on your definition.
If you cannot do that better to say less on the subject.
BHO has done a great job to bring the US where she is.
@ babushka:
Rubio is a self centered little chihuahua who likes to behave like the Cuban low scum he is. He must think he is still in HS to behave and talk the way he does. Agree with “he is too full of himself”. Another Obama supported by the Hispanic illegals who think he would help them if elected. Good luck. He is only for himself. Once he gets the position he wants he will forget who put him there.
He has a mouth and another orifice all connected. I should sent him a case of TP to wipe off his mouth after he talks.
A chihuahua trying to be a bully an adult.
Rubio is financed by the cheap foreign labor lobby, including Zuckerberg and Gates and Ellison. They can make deals with Trump, but Cruz is their nightmare.
But casting Rubio’s motives aside, you are correct about the dynamics of the race. Absent Rubio, Cruz would have won Kentucky and would be running close in Louisiana.
@ Mladen Andrijasevic:Don’t worry Mladen, I lived in Israel too, I made Aliyah. Under normal circumstances, Trump would not be considered a serious candidate. Sadly, the electorate are burnt out and there is a very good chance Romney’s scathing attack and the deluge of flack from The GOP will result in Trump gaining votes.
Trump knows he will need Cruz as his VP. This explains his complementary demeanor towards Cruz on the one hand and rancor when it comes to Rubio. I do not agree with what’s his name that Trump will nominate Cruz for The US Supreme Court. Trump has to show diversity in a BIG way. VP Cruz would work. VP Christie would NOT work. Christie is a candidate for Attorney General or the like. Palin can take Health and Human Services, something like that.
It is impossible to know for certain and I share your concerns, however; I believe Trump is “neutral” for election purposes and will be PRO ISRAEL in the fullest sense. If he wishes to convene a “peace conference”, he will learn very quickly the odds for a deal are, simply put, 0. Then he will have no choice but for examining REASONABLE viable alternatives.
The only reasonable one is Israeli annexation to achieve the promised “defensible borders”.
Another disturbing thing I’ve noticed is that Trump is attracting neo-nazi support. I am being confronted by them on Twitter.
If Rubio really wants to beat Trump, he should bow out and let Cruz face Trump one on one. But he is too full of himself.
Kansas poll was of all GOP not caucus voters. KS insiders thought Cruz would win. LA polling a little better.
According to our final polls-plus forecast, Donald Trump has a 96% chance of winning the Louisiana primary. Per 538.com
Trump was ahead by six in the last Kansas poll; with 52% of the vote counted, Cruz is ahead by twenty-four.
The most recent Louisiana polls show Trump ahead by 12 and 17 percent. Let us hope for similar ineptitude on the part of the “experts”. All that’s riding on this election is the survival of the United States and Israel.
Trump will win Louisiana. I KY I do not know.
Cruz is leading in every county in Maine.
Trump does not fare as well in these Republican-only contests.
He needs those crossover Bernie Sanders voters in order to dominate.
Okay, Kentucky and Louisiana…you’re up next.
Make it a sweep for the Forces Of Purity And Wholesome Homestyle Goodness.
Ted Cruz is a brilliant, ethical mensch.
We are lucky that he is running.
So why complicate things?
Trump does not know who Hamas is! He did not know in an interview a couple of months who Hezbollah and Hamas are. So one can not know his views because has been winging and faking the campaign because lack of knowledge. This is why he is flip flopping on so many issues.
Cruz has won the Kansas caucus and is reportedly leading in Maine. Now if Louisiana and Kentucky will comply, this will be Spectacular Saturday.
And while I do not wish anyone ill, if the Illuminati would be willing to abduct Marco Rubio for a few months…
What really bothers me about Trump, because I live in Israel, is his neutrality towards Hamas jihadists.
The Hamas Charter asks for the killing of Jews – Trump would be neutral. Saying whose fault it is does not help, he says
“Let me be sort of a neutral guy,” Trump said. “I don’t want to say whose fault it is. I don’t think that helps.”
Well, this is the whole problem. You cannot be “neutral” when you have one side being a totalitarian theocracy with its Charter calling for the killing of Jews and the other side being a democracy where you have all the minority rights protected. Would Trump be neutral in judging the conflict between ISIS and the US?
So here we have Trump who is supposedly against political correctness being politically correct. Probably out of sheer ignorance. He probably never read the Hamas Charter let alone the hadith Article 7 was taken from. When will political leaders in the West stop being lazy and sit down and do their homework?
Has anybody noticed that Trump is just inconsistent – how come he is “neutral” on the Palestinians and Israel and not “neutral” on Muslim immigration into the US?
http://www.madisdead.blogspot.co.il/2016/02/the-hamas-charter-asks-for-killing-of.html
Trump is as establishment as you can get. His cult following is beyond gullible.
bearcat Said:
There is a third alternative, and that would be Ted Cruz.
can’t disagree but I assure you the alternative (clinton) is much worse@ babushka:
Ventura.
Schwarzenegger.
Trump.
Voters do love their staggeringly clueless celebrity macho louts, but it never works out well.
When you read all the smug put-downs in Facebook, as well as, of course, on the air-waves, and consider that despite all the vileness, Trump is expected to behave like a gentleman, it’s a wonder anybody can walk around even his own neighborhood, without a mask, so as to avoid the stench of hypocrisy that abounds everywhere.