He plays the same game the big stars do: For all his merits, Bob Kerrey may not be an infallible press analyst.
He’s quoted in Frank Bruni’s new column complaining about the press corps. They shouldn’t be covering Candidate Trump, he almost seems to say.
Bruni notes that Candidate Trump is leading the national GOP polls. Who cares about that, Kerrey asks:
BRUNI (7/22/15): “This is not a national primary,” Kerrey said, noting that Trump’s 24 percent has dubious predictive power for a consequential handful of individual contests in early states that aren’t exactly mirrors of America. “So who the hell cares what his numbers are nationally?”Kerrey is right about one thing. Presumably, TV news programs are airing Trump all night and all day because he runs a great sideshow.
“He’s not going to do that well in Iowa,” Kerrey continued. “There’s nothing about Trump that indicates that the evangelical community there is going to embrace him. And does anyone seriously think he has the kind of ground organization in New Hampshire to turn people out to vote?”
“He’s got no ground game,” Kerrey continued. “It’s all up in Donald’s head! Everything’s in Donald’s head. It’s the political version of ‘Being John Malkovich.’ ”
“The people running the networks know this,” he added, sighing. But they deliberately play it down as they seize almost every opportunity—including the McCain insult—to Trump anew and to Trump ad nauseam.
Kerrey groaned. “They’ve got a good sideshow going: ‘Are veterans offended?’ ‘Donald, are you going to apologize?’ For insulting McCain? He’s been insulted by better than Trump.”
On the other hand, it’s news when Candidate Trump, or anyone else, is suddenly doubling everyone else in the national polls. It means that a significant chunk of GOP voters prefer him to all the rest.
Kerrey says Trump can’t win in the end. That may be true, or may it be false. But he’s asking news orgs to ignore real events which are actually happening in deference to his conjecture.
Without any question, Trump is being over-covered on our cable “news channels.” Presumably, this is happening because the sideshow is good.
That said, we were struck by the way Bruni defended his own branch of the press:
“Television has succumbed to the mantra more than other media, because it in particular thrives on theater,” the columnist writes. “But those of us at newspapers and websites have definitely done our part, uncertain of the best approach.”
Shorter Bruni: The TV people are deliberately clowning. We newspaper types just haven’t been able to find the best approach!
In our view, Bruni is going very easy on the whole floundering press corps. Trump keeps making ridiculous statements—statements which insult a sensible person’s intelligence.
He’s going to build a fantastic wall—and make the Mexicans pay for it! He has a foolproof plan for defeating ISIS—but he doesn’t want to say what it is! The negotiation with Iran should have taken a week—truthfully, more like a day!
These are moronic statements, not unlike the moronic statements Trump wouldn’t stop making about Obama’s birth. But the newspapers ran off and hid in the woods when Trump was playing that moron card, and they don’t seem inclined to discuss the inanity of his current statements.
Alas! Our journalists only know how to respond to a statement to the extent that it’s deemed “offensive.” For obvious reasons, they don’t seem to know how to challenge a statement because it’s just patently dumb.
It isn’t hard to see why. Our discourse has been running on “dumb” for a very long time now. Our press corps has never complained about this. In truth, they were converted, long ago, to the high church of The Dumb.
We posted some very dumb statements by Trump. But how much dumber are his statements than the following trio of claims, which lay unchallenged and unexamined at the heart of our discourse for a very long time:
If we lower our tax rates, we get more revenue! The Social Security trust fund is a pile of worthless IOUs! The United States has the best health care in the world!
He’ll make Mexico pay for the wall? Is that statement really dumber than the old chestnut about lower tax rates? The press corps agreed to live with that groaner for quite a few decades, not necessarily excluding right now.
Is it any wonder that Bruni’s crew can’t find the best approach to this buffoon? They’ve been tolerating their own buffoons for a great many years now:
They were first warned about “Creeping Dowdism” in 1993! They still pretend that they can’t see that their glorious Pulitzer winner is poisonous, ludicrous, venomous, mindless, just this side of insane.
They spent two years repeating this shit: Al Gore said he invented the Internet! Al Gore said he inspired love Story! Al Gore said he discovered Love Canal!
They kept that up for two years! In a less consequential episode, they tugged on their dicks and played the fool when Lady Collins wrote, in more than fifty columns, that Candidate Romney drove to Canada with his dog strapped to the roof of his car.
They’ve promulgated every line of nonsense there is or ever could be. Candidate Trump is their idiot spawn. He’s playing the same dumbbell game they play. He just plays it a little bit better.
They’re uncertain about the best approach? Panchito, please! Candidate Trump is you!
"Quinnipiac poll: Hillary’s popularity crumbles in three swing states, now trails three top Republicans"
ReplyDeletehttp://hotair.com/archives/2015/07/22/quinnipiac-poll-hillarys-popularity-crumbles-in-three-swing-states-now-trails-three-top-republicans/
Ouch
Delete"On Monday night—just one night before!—Maddow had wasted her viewers’ time with an utterly silly report about how well Trump was doing in the Republican polls." Somerby 6/20/15
ReplyDeleteTrump is Maddow too. All millionaire, egomaniac jokers.
DeleteMSNBC Lawrence O'Donnell is hysterically incredulous about Trump's earnings from NBC "The Apprentice"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtxEa26m7KE
Donald Trump Bets Lawrence O’Donnell Year’s Salary He’s Telling Truth About Paychecks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kj3MQpyfl4
O'Donnell apologizes to Trump and refuses to take the bet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHwxL7Pmccs
Sounds like the commies trying to shutdown Planned Parenthood by criminalizing capitalism.
DeleteSince when does capitalism require the federal government funding for survival?
Deletecicero,
DeleteIn the name of 100,000+ business lobbyists descending on Washington DC,, how could anyone not think that?
Just because it's called "paying" attention, doesn't mean there is a fee.
You conflate federal government funding with lobbying Congress to pass or not pass laws favorable to that special interest group. Planned Parenthood gets $500 million from Title X Family Planning Program and Medicaid. Since Planned Parenthood denies selling organs for profit, what does capitalism have to do with the organizations existence?
Delete"Since when does capitalism require the federal government funding for survival?"
DeleteBest to ask WalMart's owners (whose workers are so underpaid, they are on the government dole), professional sports franchise owners (whose stadiums are built with public money), board members of Big Pharma (the NIH pays for the R&D), etc.
"Since when does capitalism require the federal government funding for survival?"
DeleteWhy, in the name of trillions of dollars of bailout money given to the banks and Wall Street, would you ask this question?
@ 5:30
DeleteWho forces people to work at WalMart whose base pay will be $10 an hour by 2016.
Stadium construction are bond issues that are voted on by the public..
@ 6:29
DeleteCorporate welfare is no more capitalism than Planned Parenthood. is with their $500 million government handouts.
"Corporate welfare is no more capitalism than Planned Parenthood. is with their $500 million government handouts."
DeleteAs practiced in the USA it's capitalism writ large.
Don't get me wrong, I too think business should be taxed, regulated and told to sit down and shut up.
Speaking of similarities, did anyone else notice how similar in style, if not substance, Somerby's writing is to Adam Mansbach, who he covered in an earlier post?
ReplyDeleteTrump right now is surging because he's the only candidate running a populist campaign. Most people are very much against illegal immigration and appreciate someone who openly defies the elite consensus. In the end it will probably come to nothing, though - barring pitchforked mobs, the elite usually get their way in the end.
ReplyDeleteBigotry is not populism,
DeleteMost people are also very much against the way Trump characterized people coming here from Mexico, but there are enough of them in the Republican party to give him a big early lead.
Enough "who agree with him" in the Republican Party, I meant to say.
Delete@ Earl
DeleteSure. Bigotry is populism only when candidate Obama criticizes illegal immigration.
“[T]here’s no denying that many blacks share the same anxieties as many whites about the wave of illegal immigration flooding our Southern border—a sense that what’s happening now is fundamentally different from what has gone on before,”
“And if I’m honest with myself, I must admit that I’m not entirely immune to such nativist sentiments. When I see Mexican flags waved at pro-immigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment. When I’m forced to use a translator to communicate with the guy fixing my car, I feel a certain frustration.”
“And if I’m honest with myself, I must admit that I’m not entirely immune to such nativist sentiments,” Obama wrote. “When I see Mexican flags waved at pro-immigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment. When I’m forced to use a translator to communicate with the guy fixing my car, I feel a certain frustration.”
Senator Obama 2006 autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”
Actually bigotry can be, and very much usually is, populist. And of course, elites will never tire of trying to shame the populist core into refusing to voice their legitimate concerns about the dismantling of their country and the dispossession of its citizens.
Delete"“When I see Mexican flags waved at pro-immigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment."
DeleteSo do most conservatives. Yet they support the flag of treason. Go figure.
@10:37
DeleteLiberals do indeed believe the stars and bars is the " flag of treason."
What would you call a highly organized and armed rebellion that sought to break up the United States of America?
Delete@ 11:31
DeleteDemocrats.
cicero,
DeleteYou're as funny as you are informed.
#zeroequalszero.
Look at cicero having to play dumb about conservatives courting bigots.
DeleteNext up, cicero takes it easy by climbing Kilimanjaro.
More like climbing a pitchers mound.
Delete@ 12:09
Jefferson Davis was a Democrat.
POTUS Obama not only courts bigots he made one his unofficial race czar. See Rev. Al.
Democratic Party Senator J. William Fulbright, whom POTUS Bill Clinton bestowed the Medal of Freedom, was one of the 19 senators who signed the “Southern manifesto” defending segregation.
The only segregationist senator to leave the Democratic party and become Republicans after 1964 was Strom Thurmond. The rest remained in the Democratic party — including former Klansman Robert Byrd, who became president pro tempore of the Senate.
"The Southern Manifesto".
DeleteEven a pacifist like me thinks we should have made the South the North's parking lot.
@ 12:37
Delete@ 12:37
Could be your inability to identify liberal Democrats as racists. Democratic Party Senator Bob Byrd voted with Democratic Party 86.8% of 319 votes. His political philosophy makes him a Liberal Populist.
What was conservative about Senator Robert Byrd?
Democratic Party Senator Bob Byrd, who denounced his former racism, voted with the Democratic party 86.8% of the time. That sounds horrible. Although, not a s horrible as it must feel for you to realize conservative ideology is the home of racism.
DeleteOops. i meant, not as horrible as you realizing you are fooling no one in your denial that conservative ideology is the home of racism.
Delete@ 1:35
DeleteDenying the rampant racism in the Democratic Party may work on Media Matters, dailykos, Crooks & Liars, etc, but the Howler board allows for facts to dispute your unsupportable musings.
"Democrats spent the first century of this country's existence refusing to treat black people like human beings, and the second refusing to treat them like adults." A.C.
It's certainly true that from its founding and up until the 1960s, the Democratic Party was the populist (i.e. white) party, but at present the parties have almost completely reversed their traditional alignments. Now, while both parties are still financed by different flavors of the economic elite, the GOP is the party of America's traditional core (i.e. middle class intact white families), while the democrats are the party of the fringes. Nevertheless, due to rampant immigration, the fringe is starting to overwhelm the core, which will not be good for the stability of our nation going forward.
DeleteNow they are in the third century, and trying to get conservatives to treat black people as equals.
DeleteThey have their work cut out for themselves. White privilege isn't going away easily.
@ 7:43
DeleteRepublicans promoted a black person to the SCOTUS, a black women to Secretary of State, a black man to Secretary of State, a first Haitian American and the first black female Republican in Congress, as well as the first African American to be elected to Congress from Utah.
White privilege is the province of liberals who demand that blacks genuflect towards White Liberals for all the advances blacks have ever made.
Say what you will about Trump. At least he hasn't uttered anything as ridiculous as, "I apologize. I didn't mean all lives matter after all. It was insensitive of me to say all lives matter."
ReplyDeleteESPN's Stephen A Smith called out candidate Martin O’Malley for that inane apology.
DeleteStephen A Smith
✔ @stephenasmith
I'm a black man. Of course I know #BlackLivesMatter. You can't boo a presidential candidate just b/c he says "all lives matter".
10:59 AM - 21 Jul 2015
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/21/espn-analyst-stephen-a-smith-takes-shots-at-blacklivesmatter-protesters/
I'll be back when all these conservative trolls leave.
DeleteThey are not trolls. They are Somerby fans drawn by his posts.
Delete11:31,
DeleteWhen Somerby lies down with dogs, he gets up with fleas.
@ 10:39
DeleteDon't blame conservatives for B.S.'s parasites. He made his bed with liberals long ago.
Wasn't it conservative Democrats like Robert Byrd who you called bigots?
DeleteJust like conservative Republicans are bigots.
And here you earning the big bucks by trying to pin bigotry on liberals.
Nice try, but you're overpaid.
Too bad Byrd was a Liberal Populist. You might want to actually acquaint yourself with Byrd's political ideology before the last vestige of your visage is covered in an omelet
Deletecicero. Lifelong liberal Democrat here with words of advice.
DeleteThe past affiliations of the late Robert Byrd are less embarrassing to those of us who share his final party affiliation than is your current shared affiliation with our species.
@ 1:59
DeleteThe advise of a lifelong liberal Democrat is worth :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW0K0dxQhwQ
"The advise of a lifelong liberal Democrat is worth "
DeleteAgreed. And any advice from a conservative is worthless.
@ 3:10
DeleteHow long have dung beetles planned your menu?
Ha ha.
DeleteYou intimated I eat shit, just because I told the truth. This joke is funny, which makes you WAY funnier than you are informed.
@ 5:35
DeleteHave you thought about using English subtitles in your posts?
No.
DeleteHave you thought? From your posts, i'm guessing the answer is "No" as well.
Everybody dumb but Bob.
ReplyDeleteLet me guess: Trump is the liberals' fault.
ReplyDeleteOur guess? He once gave money to Robert Byrd. Rub your two IQ points together and see if they don't combine to form a powerful point about where we stand as a people.
Delete@ 2:04
DeleteGuess again.
Trump gave Clinton Foundation,$100,000,
Trump donated to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), former Pennsylvania governor Edward G. Rendell, and Rahm Emanuel, a former aide to President Obama who received $50,000 from Trump during his recent run to become Chicago’s mayor.
HRC attended Trump’s 2005 wedding to current wife Melania Knauss at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-donation-history-shows-democratic-favoritism/2011/04/25/AFDUddtE_story.html
And yet he is the darling of the Tea Party set, indicating again the power of bigotry masquerading as populism.
DeleteThe differences between the Tea Party and The Republican Party are spelling and pronunciation only.
DeleteSame people, same funding, same failed ideology.
@ Earl
DeleteThe guy you voted for twice expressed the same "bigotry" in his book. Are you now repudiating Obama The Populist?
I hear Obama is trying to make sure people don't ingest Drain-O.
Deletecicero, are you going to let him get away with that?
It is too late. cicero was breast fed before the smuggled Obama in from the madrassa.
DeleteBreast fed from a 2 decade old chicken breast with freezer burn, no doubt.
Delete@ 5:40
ReplyDeleteObama prefers people save their thirst for his Kool-Aid which is equally as caustic.
Obama admires Ronald Reagan. I'd drink tracking runoff before I drink anyone that stupid's Kool-Aid.
Delete"fracking runoff".
DeleteDamn spellcheck.
@ 7:54
DeleteOutside of Obama saying Reagan changed the direction of the country in a way Nixon and Clinton did not, how is POTUS Obama any less of a flaming liberal?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFLuOBsNMZA
"Reagan changed the direction of the country..."
DeleteHe started it clockwise. Down the drain.
@ 2:13
DeleteAs opposed to Obama flushing the country down the toilet which POTUS Carter was about to do when Reagan easily defeated him and proceeded to crush the Soviet Union.