Is it a case of “give them enough rope”?
Suddenly, a lot of Democratic candidates are getting really really stupid.
Now, you might say they’ve been stupid for a long time. But I don’t mean “stupid” as in “thinking they’ll never run out of other people’s money,” or something like that. I mean “stupid” in the sense that Republicans have so often been stupid.
Stupid about campaigning. Stupid about tactics. Stupid about timing. The kind of stupid we recall seeing from “I am not a witch” Christine O’Donnell and “you can’t get pregnant when you’re legitimately raped” Todd Akin, who was on track to unseat Claire McKaskill until his unfortunate remark.
Shoot yourself in the foot, foot in mouth (mixed metaphor?) stupid.
On Monday I wrote about Elizabeth Warren:
I used to think that Elizabeth Warren was smart. I disagreed hugely with her politics and her tactics, but long ago she seemed intelligent. I can’t say I’ve been paying all that much attention to her in recent years, but today’s DNA caper seems an indication that if she ever was smart, being in DC so long has caused her to lose whatever savvy she may once have possessed.
In other words, why on earth would she think that releasing these DNA test results would help her cause? On the contrary, the move makes her look like an absolute fool…
And then yesterday I read about Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota’s doxxing of alleged sexual assault survivors who never gave permission for their names to be used and who claim they’re not even sexual assault survivors. And all in the service of a pretty weak campaign ad, an attempt by Heitkamp to overcome the backlash against her “no” vote on Kavanaugh. The ad made little sense even if the all names had been correct and permission had been given (which apparently was the case with most of the names she used): why double down on the anti-Kavanaugh mess when it’s just not a popular stance in your state?
You might call that a rookie error—but Heitkamp’s not a rookie.
Heitkamp isn’t alone:
@SenateDems had a SLAM DUNK!?!? pic.twitter.com/N7BaNs5jXl
— ? George Kaplan ? (@En_vis_age) October 17, 2018
Why is all of this happening? Is it a simple case of “give them enough rope”? Perhaps, at least partly. But I continue to think that it’s due to something I discussed yesterday, the fact that Trump is a knuckleballer.
Now you may think that analogy of mine isn’t a good one. After all, isn’t the knuckleball a junk pitch? Not when it’s done right. A superlative knuckleballer is highly skilled at what he does, and it’s not something most pitchers can master and throw with any consistency or effectiveness. But the best knuckleballers can regularly make the batters who face them look like fools. The batters swing wildly, usually trying for the stands, because the knuckleball pitch looks so big and fat and juicy and slow that they’re sure they can knock it right out of the park. Then they end up looking like one of those cartoons of baseball players taking a big swing and missing, corkscrewing their bodies in the process, and then having to unwind.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in the election this year in terms of the results. I confess to being very anxious about it. Then again, I’m almost always anxious about elections these days. But I know that if I were a Democrat I’d be very, very frustrated right about now.
I find the analogy apt. Like the knuckleballer, Trump is playing the game in an unexpected way that does not fit the experience of his opposition. In addition, his personality is maddening.
“Such a stupid, limited man. He doesn’t even read.”
They read books. He reads people.
In the past the Dems/Progs could say or do nearly anything that was even remotely legal or ethical without fear of being questioned by the dinosaur media. That is still mostly true. The alternate media has been growing in size and influence to the point that many people are listening to another perspective and realizing that there is really a different way of thinking.
I think that the stupid has always been with us, but now some of the glow has been taken away and without rose colored glasses, all can see the warts.
“Romey” (above) has it right: in the past, stupid behavior by democrats was ignored by the LSM. If you are a republican, you must be like Caesar’s wife — beyond reproach. This hurt democrats like Sen. Kerry and Gov. Dukakis because living in the Big Blue Bubble meant that your debating skills got dull or never developed. When democrats had to defend themselves, they suddenly discovered that they had forgotten how.
In the modern age, the LSM can’t hide their stupidity. Smart republicans wait until the last minute and plaster their opponent’s stupidity all over the internet.
The George Kaplan tweet mentions Beto O’Rourke’s DUI and fleeing the scene. In addition, Beto faced minimal legal consequences.
Questions Persist About Beto O’Rourke’s Drunk Driving Crash 20 Years Ago.
Any connection between the DWI charge being dismissed and Beto’s father being an El Paso County Judge? While Beto claims he didn’t try to flee the scene, a police report said so. That he wasn’t charged with same is probably connected with his El Paso County Judge father.
Beto O’Rourke: Clean-Cut Man with a Dirty Family File.
Le’s see if two links get by the spam filter.
How much of a knuckleball would it be for Trump to donate the $1 million to the Cherokee and Delaware tribes that Warren says her “ancestors” came from? She wouldn’t be able to claim it back.
I think that a big BIG part of this is that these people have never had to answer for their entitled ways before. They haven’t actually earned their Mandarin status. They’ve had it really easy, protected by their party, the media (but I repeat myself), and the cultural presumptions in their favor. Failing upward throughout their careers. So long as they demonstrate progressive bona fides continued success just gets handed to them. Warren is not Harvard smart (else why would she need to be a pretend Indian) but she’s not stupid. The problem is that she has no independent sense of what is appropriate, what rings true. She’s entirely lost touch with the regular people she ultimately needs in order to continue in her presumed upward trajectory. She ‘s just not a good politician. Kind of like Hillary but also like a lot of other Dems who are completely at sea when the following winds die down and they’re left stranded and cast adrift in the ocean of all their failures.
Just in general, does anyone in their right mind think that sending a bunch of incredibly poor people marching north to storm the border is a good idea for the Dems? Don’t for a second think that this is not politically motivated and funded. By tone deaf nit wits.
The democrats will win the house, and at the behest of their radicals, dive into the impeachment rabbit hole.
Republicans will take the senate, likely even expand their numbers and the transformation of the judiciary will continue, maybe at an even faster clip.
I think it will be wild.
POTUS DJT is playing the media like a fiddle. His laser pointer and the media’s cat like reactions are truly amazing to me.
Take for instance, “Horse Face” Daniels. There is little doubt in my mind that the MSM would have never announced, in my own take here, “A prostitute is paying a Politician” in 1000 years because it was a win for DJT. Here is my take on the conversation in the WH:
SSanders: Mr Prez, how do we make the media announce your win against the Prostitute and her shyster lawyer?
Prez: I give her a nickname, that they will have to report on, then the story is all over the news. Something egregious like “Horse face”. They love taking one thing and reposting on it but they always have to fill in the content of why. Me calling her names has no media or news value. She’ll fight back and it will all come out in the MSM even though they don’t want it all out because I call everyone names, no one will give a shit otherwise if there isn’t a backstory.
SS: Sir, they MSM will not report the whole story, they’ll leave it short. MSM will just say you called Stormey horse face.
Prez: People will want to know the whole story, not everybody but a lot because Americans are a very curious bunch. They’ll hopefully go to the internet and get the whole story. Most will because we’re very curious for the whole story. When they get the short version, they’ll want to know. Trust me on this.
Add some SJW insult like attacking the looks of the whore, the media goes nuts about the “Horse Face” but are forced to enlighten their viewer on DJT’s win in the court.
He just keeps giving them rope to hang themselves with. What DJT does is put a spotlight on the commies and lets them show who they really are.
A veritable parade of morons — unforced errors — caused by ideological or chemical toxicity.
I’m also worried about the election, partly because of the news about a new fund raising operation called “Act Blue” that supposedly raised a huge amount of Dem money through primarily small donations. I’ve been chiding my eclectic neo-Marxist friend about how the Dems are now the party of the rich, because most of their support comes from the Soros’ and Spielbergs etc., and the Republicans have most of the small donors. That may not be true this cycle. Robert–‘Beto’– O’Rourke raised $38M?? Tons of small donors probably means tons of turnout at the polls.
________
Neo’s question is perhaps super important, and her guess is partly correct, but I think there is more to the answer.
The left has steadily been reducing our political discourse towards a level of schoolyard taunts. Trump is just better at this than they are. How dare the president use our tactics! On the other hand, the Obama strategy was awesome. He BS’ed us with his soft sonorous words of reason and compassion, while his minions fomented riots in Ferguson, and his DOJ gave their police dept. a proctology exam.
Many years ago in an op-ed in the WSJ, a highly placed Dem operative who had retired years prior, said, “If Dems don’t win elections, they don’t eat.” Implying that they don’t have other job skills? I’m not sure that’s true anymore, but imagine that it is. Trump calls it “winning,” but for them it’s the losing — and it might be unhinging them.
I think the following is key, but I can’t express it succinctly. From Neo hours ago,
Reading Neo’s old post on 1984: sometimes it’s 2+2=5 and sometimes it’s 2+2=3, and it can be both at the same time. I believe Newt Gingrich said decades ago in one of his books, that we’re beyond all that and now it’s 2+2=23 & 1/2.
It’s true the left doesn’t care about contradictions at all, but it’s not quite true that they are no big problem for them. If Dems are speaking to a private group of feminists, or a rural group in Iowa it’s not a problem. But what do they say to a nationwide audience? They’ve got to say something that’s simple, forceful, and believable. How do they thread their way through all the illogic, and backhanded slights, and preposterous truisms that they’ve previously created?
Decades ago our CIA evaluated the Soviet economy and military as both being powerhouses right up to the point where it all collapsed. The Kremlin not only had to invest a huge amount of effort in deluding the rest of the world, but also everyone in the lower and mid levels of their own government. How did they keep all that straight? They didn’t.
Trump was forged in New York City’s hostile environment. They can’t cope with a survivor, let alone someone who prospered in that climate. He knows the domestic and international dynamic. He knows the challenges of a high density population center. He knows the limits of free trade where there are anti-competitive practices including labor, environmental, and regulatory arbitrage. He is a leader that reads people, makes them great, and productive. That said, there is cause to be cautiously optimistic.
Great analogy Neo. You are absolutely right that some few pitchers mastered the knuckle ball, and ended up in the hall of fame. Their delivery was very familiar to opposing batters, but that did them little good. I had not thought of Trump in those terms, but it is a apt; as has been demonstrated since the primary season. He just seems so hittable that the opponents literally come out of their shoes swinging (to extend baseball terminology).
Unlike some comments, I do not concede the House to the Dems; nor am I particularly impressed by the “alleged” huge funding from their billionaire class. I suspect that most folks are irritated by the incessant ads and posters, and tune them out. Another technique that has little sway on me is union endorsements. Those are particularly suspect when they lump together police, firemen, and teachers (what do those three not have in common?). In this divided electorate, most of us are more like the Senators during the confirmation hearings. We know who we will vote for and will not be swayed–certainly not by suspect advertising. Now, some of the registration shenanigans, and election day ground game tactics might have an effect in key races.
Trump is Trump, no matter how obnoxious his Tweeter stuff is and how much it has made me cringe in the past, he somehow nails it and moves on. He slaps a brand name on his opponents and every time he is criticized it sticks a little bit better. Trump’s track record makes him a marketing genius and he knows how to step back and make changes, he is coming to Texas to work for Cruz who would not have pissed on him two years ago if Trump was on fire, lots of hard feelings at that time now they join up and move forward.
Those on the left know Trump is an asshole and they hate him, deep in the marrow of their bones, those of us on the right know Trump is an asshole and we appreciate what he has done and keeps on doing and that is his genius, he lets them make their moves and then he plays them for all they are worth. It has taken me a few years to accept that Mr. Better Than Hillary and we might get one more Supreme Court Justice out of my vote for the asshole into I don’t exactly like this man but, “hell yes” I wold vote for him again.
Perfect, OldTexan.
Speaking of Elizabeth Warren, champion of the #MeSioux movement, (hat tip to Tucker Carlson) just how smart is she?
There was a big debate in the blogosphere prior to her election to the Senate about whether Warren was legally practicing law from her law professor’s office at Harvard. IF I remember correctly, she did not have a license from the bar in Massachusetts, but she did have a bar license from some other state granted many years prior. The left and right argued, and ultimately both concluded that she was practicing illegally. Because the time limit on out-of-state licensees had expired perhaps?
As a minority Harvard law prof. she probably could have gotten away with no licensing at all. On the other hand, the wizard law expert that she must be …, she could have just taken the Mass. bar exam. But didn’t. Why?
Correction. I’m pretty sure Warren did not pass the Mass. bar exam. I don’t know if she ever took the exam.
“big and fat and juicy and slow”… Neo, you can be a sports blogger! I’d read you on baseball, a subject for which I don’t generally care much, even though I value the fact that it’s a part of our history and I hope it never goes away.
Romey on October 17, 2018 at 4:23 pm at 4:23 pm said:
In the past the Dems/Progs could say or do nearly anything that was even remotely legal or ethical without fear of being questioned by the dinosaur media. That is still mostly true. The alternate media has been growing in size and influence to the point that many people are listening to another perspective and realizing that there is really a different way of thinking.
I think that the stupid has always been with us, but now some of the glow has been taken away and without rose colored glasses, all can see the warts.
* * *
This is why Twitter and Facebook and Google and the rest of the internet media HAVE to censor conservative voices: they are pulling off the rose colored glasses and smashing them.
democrats have problem when they run as democrats. there are not enough blue states. clinton got 3 million more votes then trump but carried only 20 states. 18% of voters control 52 senate seats so democrats have to run as republican light in red states with small populations alaska with one congressional seat has two senators same as california with 53 congressional seats. this infuriates democrats and makes republicans view them with contempt. but only as long as the 82% of voters will put up by being ruled by 18% of voters.
Rope? OK, but let’s call it hemp (in honor of the “True North, strong and free”!!?)
Must say, though, that I do enjoy it—immensely—when those who “know the score” promote their oh-so-convincing selves as the voices of sanity….:
https://www.infowars.com/video-brzezinski-calls-for-trump-to-be-overthrown-by-own-cabinet/
Enjoy! Points to be savored:
“MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski called for President Trump to be ousted by his own administration Tuesday, declaring that he is ‘not well’ enough to be in charge of the country.
“Brzezinski referred to Trump calling the failed porn star accuser Stormy Daniels “horse face,” and argued that it was a form of body shaming….”
My assumption is that when a party holds the presidency, it is sufficiently centralized that it can exclude the kooks and exercise message discipline; but when a party is out of power, activists (who are inherently extreme) exercise more control of the agenda.
Which is not to say that Donald Trump is not sui generis.
The Republicans used to be the Stupid Party. What Democrats are demonstrating is that they don’t understand why Trump won and are out of touch with all but their most committed base voters.
Hillary may finally have worn out her welcome with the left.
Read below some of the quotes, from solidly Leftist sources, that have come out in the last 24 hours. Gee, it's almost like they're coordinated, and all reading from the same script or something.
See the quotes in this article at https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/18/hillary-clintons-dwindling-power/?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation
wammo:
this infuriates democrats and makes republicans view them with contempt. but only as long as the 82% of voters will put up by being ruled by 18% of voters.
BTW, of the 11 states with the least population, 6 of them voted for Hillary (though Maine also sent 1 EV to Trump).
In any event,you would need an amendment to the Constitution, which I believe would need the consent of two-thirds of the states. Ain’t going to happen.
Wyoming 579,315
Vermont 623,657
Alaska 739,795
North Dakota 755,393
South Dakota 869,666
Delaware 961,939
Montana 1,050,493
Rhode Island 1,059,639
Maine 1,335,907
New Hampshire 1,342,795
Hawaii 1,427,538
Rothenberg / Gonzales is still showing a gain of about 25 seats in the House for the Democrats and a loss of 1 or 2 in the Senate. IOW, better than average gains, but not a ‘blue wave’. Quite similar to the 1982 midterms.
MGTOW has no head, no leaders, and we formed it to bow out because if you resist, you get blamed for things…but if you leave them alone, they will do the crazy and have no one to point to or get that going…
what works for feminists works for all the polar left
its POLAR LEFT…
ie. why was nazi germany and communist russia the AXIS
because if communism is the south pole, ALL Directions are north
east and west are erased, when there are two poles
and the world turns on the AXIS of one pole (communism) and the other pole (fascism), with everything else reduced this way…
this is why there will be a civil war or revolution like slovakia or some others
we are way past the spectrum idea and now directly back into the two axis
you may not realize how much is the same.
but you dont read the people who planned this in the 1920s talk about it
you dont even know they exist unless i mention them
the most important thing is to make sure they dont know that these thoughts they have are not theirs
now… do you know if your thoughts are yours?
how woud you know if you dont know the thoughts of that…
-=-=-=-=-
the men figured the only way forward was to bow out
russia did the same with its reorganization collapse
(who went to jail who got new offices?)
borders open, etc…
by bowing out, we took away their definition, their meaning, their targets
its an old tactic
Any connection between the DWI charge being dismissed and Beto’s father being an El Paso County Judge? While Beto claims he didn’t try to flee the scene, a police report said so. That he wasn’t charged with same is probably connected with his El Paso County Judge father.
Pretty plausible. Then again, judges can be astonishingly slack. I think a great many of them (perhaps most) would prefer that the penal courts be social work enterprises, but they’re hemmed in between legislators and prosecutors who want something else.
I’m still of the opinion that the old Greek line about those whom the gods choose to destroy, they first drive mad applies. I guess Trump is just filling in for Nemesis.
TWO posts now about knuckleballers, and not one mention of Phil “Knucksy” Niekro? I am so disappointed in y’all. 😉
“of the 11 states with the least population, 6 of them voted for Hillaryd”
Good work, Gringo!