Maine senator Angus King (I) said that he was disappointed in the president speech last night in Harrisburg, PA because it showed that Mr. Trump was still in "campaign mode," not reaching out to Americans that haven't supported him and spouting charred red meat rhetoric to his loyal supporters. Chris Matthews said it was the smart move. For the president it was, but the outreach, despite what Vice President Mike Pence would tell you, has been nonexistent.
That's not a surprise and faux outrage is a waste of energy. President Trump at the 100-day mark is not going to go the White House correspondents' dinner to be roasted. He needed a "feel good" because these first days, frankly, have been brutal for the president.
In this respect, I read Donald Trump as a "wake-up call" kind of person. Unfortunately, his attitude has shown that it will take some sort of tragic event that effects people all across the political spectrum for him to realize that we're all in this together. (I say this with reservation.)
Before getting into that, it must first be said that enough's enough with Mr. Pence speaking in such a patronizing/ condescending tone in interviews like he has some other insight into the American people that they themselves don't know about. The subtle mimicry of Reaganesque inflections has got to stop.
"This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier," the president said to the Associated Press. The problem is that it's only going to get more difficult from here on out. The president's less-than-calculated alienating statements have everyone on their heals, which only means that he will become even more isolated. A Republican-controlled Congress rejected the billion dollar down payment for the border wall. There's little enthusiasm for for his legislative agenda, as thin as it is.
In terms of tax policy, a one page outline simply isn't going to make the grade. In fact, no tax reform [read: tax cutting] should happen before the president, who is still fully invested in his businesses, releases his returns. The American people have the right to know how changing the tax code might disproportionately benefit the president.
In terms of foreign policy, specifically South Korea which was discussed today, again the vice-president deflected away conflicting statements coming from the administration. President Trump is making tough statements with regard to North Korea, while at the same time telling Seoul that they need to pay for the air defense system, which Defense Secretary Mattis then reversed in direct talks with the South Koreans.
No way to conduct foreign policy, obviously.
You would observe that the Trump Administration needs to get on the same page, but perhaps they should begin with reading the same book first. This task (getting everyone on the "same page") is expressly the job of the White House chief of staff, in this case Reince Priebus. Granted he does have the near impossible task of keeping the president on message, but it's on him. Again, Vice-President Pence tries to put a more diplomatic spin on it, saying things like, "we're asking our allies to do more," etc; when the president is saying, "you should pay for it."
Maybe they could run this through the filter before we're made to drink it in.
Panel: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute; Nicole Wallace, NBC News; Chris Matthews, NBC News
One More Thing...
Ms. Cooper explained that Democrats right now are in the wilderness. Mr. Matthews said that they needed to get more aggressive, break the rules and take control of the floor for a vote. I'm not sure where I fall on that right at the moment, but they better be coming up with a plan if and a message if they want to take control of either chamber of Congress.
No comments:
Post a Comment