With regard to the upcoming debate on Thursday, Mr. Trump downplayed expectations of his performance, saying that he wasn't a debate and he didn't know how it was going to go. Today's panel offered up predictions, which all depended upon which Donald Trump either the one of audacious ego or the man lowering expectations. Chris Matthews thinks that Trump may surprise and offer some sort of policy prescription perhaps on taxes. Two points particularly stick out to us from the panel discussion on Mr. Trump and the upcoming debate, one of which was The Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib's point that Mr. Trump has to be able to answer that 'commander-in-chief' question.' There is no question that Mr. Trump possesses a presidential size personality, but can he show the temperament of a president - be presidential? Mr. Seib's and our question speak to how Mr. Trump would represent the United States abroad and how he would be in an international crisis.
Chris Matthews opined that the biggest challenge for Mr. Trump could be Fox News moderator, Megyn Kelly, who would be supremely qualified to challenge a Republican candidate like Mr. Trump on this point of acting presidential. As Mr. Matthews warned, Mr. Trump would verbally joust with Ms. Kelly at his political peril.
On the question of whether Mr. Trump is hurting the Republican party, the answer is unequivocally 'yes...' Unless, he wins the nomination. Our reasoning for this stems from the fact that Mr. Trump has been called (as cited on the program) a rattlesnake, a drunken NASCAR driver and a cancer on the party to name a few, which just makes voters think negatively of the whole enterprise. For Mr. Trump's part, he said that Wisconsin is a mess (in reference to Walker), that John Kasich when working for Lehman Bros. helped sink the world's economy, and that Rick Perry wears glasses only to look smarter, et al.
Make no mistake, you'll be seeing all of these statements regurgitated in Democratic attack ads against who ever the nominee for the Republicans is come September. It's like 'pick a card, any card...' because Mr. Trump has hit all of his opponents in a like manner. And by the way, if people give all of those criticisms more than a second's thought, they'll realize that he is right. Under Republican governor Scott Walker, Wisconsin has a huge amount of debt. John Kasich was in fact on the board of Lehman Bros., the firm that triggered the 2008 economic meltdown. And on the question of Texas governor Rick Perry's intellectual readiness to be president, we'll let you be the judge.
What is also clear from today's interview with RNC Chair Reince Priebus is that he has no control over these candidates to any degree at all by saying that none of them speak for the Republican Party, something Mr. Priebus curiously referred to as a 'private' organization. We don't know what that's about. He seemed to imply that there are owners, hmmm... However, isn't the idea that all the candidates speak for the party offering something positive to the race? Or maybe not.
With all this Donald Trump bashing, there is one thing he said, to which we have to give unquestioned props. Mr. Trump said that he needed to be himself and he couldn't do that if he were beholden to special interests or pollsters or big money donors, the latter of which he said were in fact not nice people. Two important things here - he really is putting his money where his mouth is, like what comes out of it or not he's spending his own money so he isn't swayed any which way, which is why you will see an article in The Washington Post entitled "Because I Said So." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-trump-platform-because-i-said-so/2015/08/01/4684802c-36f7-11e5-9739-170df8af8eb9_story.html). It reflects that dynamic. Also, there is his willingness to take on that machine of political industry which will be what sinks him in the end. What was that statistic that Mr. Todd put on the screen?
The above statistic is just sad. It illustrates, among other things, how our political leaders are in the tank for a chosen few, and for the rest, you get what we give you.
Panel: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post; Gerald Seib, The Wall Street Journal; Chris Matthews, MSNBC.
A couple more things...
First, Chris Matthews provided us all with a concise explanation on how to differentiate between being a Democrat and being a Socialist. A socialist, Mr. Matthews said, is someone who believes that the government controls the entire economy whereas a Democrat believes in large government but also believes that the market should be the determining factor. In more practical terms, Democrats believe that certain things should be taken off the table that could inhibit economic success - like being beholden to an insurance company's determination on how much you pay for health insurance.
Lastly, one can not help but think that police in this country are out of control, and the brutality first strategy when interacting with the public will not stand any longer. This notion occurred to us - it all comes back to our irresponsible gun laws in this country. We've said it before, we are now at a point where the 'well-regulated' part of the Second Amendment needs to kick in hard. We as a society have failed when it comes to preventing gun violence. The statistical fact cited today is that the most likely way for a black male to die in the U.S. is by homicide, from the use of a gun. This is not meant as an indictment of black males in any way. This fact is the product of a deeply ingrained racially-biased system that we made ourselves. But cops know this fact, and coupled with the apparent lack of proper training they approach every situation wrongly assuming the person has a gun. Taking that approach only leads to fear that provokes confrontation that then ends in tragedy.
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