Did Ryan really save his caucus, or dig GOP deeper into doo-doo than before?

Much is being made of the endless list of politicos who feel compelled to say they don’t really back Donald Trump for president; no matter how strongly they may have previously endorsed him.

RYAN: Did he help Grand OI' Party?

In fact, some of the strongest rhetoric has been tied to the name of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Minn., who says he’s so offended by what Trump has said about the fairer sex (even if it was supposed to be in private, and many years ago) that he won’t defend him.

RYAN SAYS HIS focus for the final four weeks leading up to Election Day is to work to ensure that Trump's presence on the Republican ballot won't wind up taking down to defeat other GOP candidates seeking Congressional seats.

Because just envision the conservative ideologue’s worst nightmare – both the Senate and House of Representatives develop Democratic majorities under a “President Hillary R. Clinton.” Which, in theory, start acting in partisan ways to shove so many so-called repulsive issues up their partisan behind.

Which actually is a myth. Largely because urban and rural Democrats have never been able to work in unison on issues the way that Republicans can. Just remember the brief times when both presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had Congresses that theoretically were aligned with them.

A whole lotta nothin’ went on, and both of those presidents wound up spending the bulk of their time with Republican-controlled Congresses that were openly hostile toward presidential interests.

BUT BACK TO Ryan, who says he fears Trump’s misogyny is now such a threat that it can’t be ignored. Not that he or other Republicans really are offended by Trump’s thoughts on gender issues. It’s more a matter of they’re upset he doesn’t understand the subtle way of expressing oneself without putting one’s foot in their mouth.

 

Speaking truth? Or his mamma didn't teach him manners?

I once remember a reporter-type colleague who, although working in Chicago, hailed from Georgia, who tried explaining to me a difference of perception on racial matters. Telling me that with regards to a certain “n----r” word, “It’s rude. Even if they think it, only the lowest form of white trash says that in public.”

Does that mean Trump is just lacking in manners; in the ways of behaving when amongst civilized company? If he had piped down what he thought of women, he’d be fine?

But the fact is that some people are, in a sense, rude. A large part of why they’re attracted to the Trump campaign no matter now stupid he sounds is because they sense he doesn’t hold it against them the way they really think.

SO THE FACT that the initial polls didn’t show any large drop of support for Trump even after we learned where he believes women should be grabbed to gain their attention?

There probably will be people who will take Ryan’s attitude as further evidence of how out-of-touch political people are! Which is the part about our society that scares me – the segment of those who equate having manners with so-called political correctness.

It means that when I do my own review of the Election Day facts and figures following Nov. 8 (and yes, I realize there are many people who only want to know “yes” or “no” as to whether their preferred presidential candidate won the election), I’m going to be checking many of these Congressional candidates.

How well did they do? How many of them got taken down? How many of them only got re-elected by the skin of their teeth? How many of them will feel the need to make post-Electoral mea culpas for their attitudes being expressed now?

 

CLINTON: Has she really won?!?

IN SHORT, HOW much of a change in the way our most narrow-minded in our society did Donald Trump’s existence as a presidential candidate wind up creating? How much “cover” did he create for them to think their thoughts – which usually focus on trying to keep everybody unlike themselves in check.

Ryan and other political people may want to view Trump as the aberration who will fade away (remember Michael Dukakis?!?) into forgottonia.

But it may be the lasting after-effect that we’ll have to devote generations to trying to fight off.

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Hurricane ‘Donald’ whomps ‘Matthew’ out of the public eye. Will he knock GOP out of Election Day as well?

“Matthew” blowing along the southeast Atlantic and wrecking havoc wherever he went could have been the talk of the nation this weekend. Instead, we got “Donald” showing us that his garish behavior goes on and on and on.

 

TRUMP: Probably thinks he's being picked on

I’m referring, of course, to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whom anybody who was paying attention throughout the years knew he treated women like toys to be played with. But we now have tapes showing us just how crudely he behaved. He makes Hugh Hefner seem like a sophisticated, refined gentleman.

CLINTON: How will she play this issue?

THE TRUMP WHO comes through on tape – talking about how he grabs a woman’s most private parts and kisses them anytime he wants because they all want him – is not only an egomaniac, but also a pig. As in the kind of guy who thinks women exist solely to service him.

And they’d better be blonde with big jugs (or otherwise be in the running for the Miss U.S.A. pageant that Trump owns), or else The Donald will deem them unworthy of existence and treat them as objects of ridicule. Perhaps the proper penalty is some sort of court order banning Trump from the pageant premises in the future.

Anybody who had been paying attention to the gauche public persona that Trump has portrayed during his time in the public eye already knew he was on Wife Number Three, in addition to many female flings in his younger years.

We’re now being told tales of Trump’s boorish and grotesque behavior (seriously does anybody else behave this way?) that the GOP politicos and other operatives are fighting their way to be at the head of the line of officials now eager to say they don’t back his presidential bid.

OF COURSE, IT won’t change his standing amongst the element of our society that was the only reason Trump had a credible campaign to begin with. The “basket of deplorables” probably think that Trump is merely a “man’s man,” and it is the reason a Morning Consult tracking poll showed Trump dropping only from 39 percent support to 38 percent.

'Matthew' has 16 U.S. casualties before going out to sea; 'Donald' has 29 more days

With Democrat Hillary Clinton leading by 42 percent. Big surprise, the people to whom this election cycle is all about dumping all over “that hag Hillary” aren’t going to let anything change their mindset.

What is important to realize is how small that segment of the electorate truly is – even though they shout so loud to try to make us believe they’re really a majority.

The odd part of this tale coming out is that I have no doubt that Trump, in his own fantasy way of viewing life, probably thinks he’s supposed to be the one making the allegations – putting the pressure on Clinton to defend the fact that her own husband has a history of adulterous behavior.

INSTEAD, IT WAS Melania Trump who felt compelled to issue the statement this weekend saying she finds his behavior “unacceptable and offensive,” yet also finds it within her heart to forgive him.

Which is a factor I will consider in making up my own mind about this predicament – largely because I think the real victim in such cases is the spouse who has to deal with the trash becoming public. If she doesn’t want to publicly penalize him, that’s her prerogative and we should respect that.

Soon to be popular?

Just as I used to sarcastically joke that if Hillary wanted to take a Sammy Sosa model Louisville Slugger upside her husband’s head after his behavior, we should stand back and let her. Instead, she managed to find it within herself to move ahead in life – making those people who can’t move on with regards to Bill Clinton all the more pathetic.

I suspect that in Trump’s mind, the outrageous part of these disclosures about his behavior is that he now cannot credibly say or do anything negative about the Clintons. It will get thrown back in his face.

ALTHOUGH IT WASN’T a secret. Trump has always maintained a public persona (because he thinks we all inherently care about him), and the failure of his other marriages was known.

Will Bill get the last laugh?

Particularly that of his first wife (and mother of three of his kids) Ivana. Any Republican who now argues that they can’t support Trump because of the way he treats women is full of it – you knew all along, yet chose to ignore it because you hoped he could pull off an electoral victory that you could leech off of for partisan political reasons.

They’re almost repulsive and absurd as the political operatives who tried using the line of logic that Trump was registered as a Democrat back when he made such remarks.

And we can now speculate as to whether Hurricane Donald will do more damage to the Republican Party and its Election Day chances than Hurricane Matthew managed to do down in Florida and up to the Carolinas.

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EXTRA: An all-chick ticket; how humiliating for Donald to lose to THAT

Outspoken celebrity Rosie O’Donnell is a “pig,” while Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly is a “bimbo.” And as for Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian, they’re both too “fat” in their derrieres (which is actually part of their appeal to some guys).

 

TRUMP: Can he beat an all-female ticket

Those are the views that have been expressed by Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, and are just some of the comments that have been offered up as evidence that the New York real estate developer is a misogynist.

I’M MORE INCLINED to think he’s just a rube who thinks his money buys his sophistication. But he’s one of those people who’s not just garish and rude, he somehow thinks his crudeness makes him truth-telling.

Instead of just a goof whom women wouldn’t pay attention to if he DIDN’T have all that money.

So it is within that context that I couldn’t help but feel a chuckle at the comments made this week by political operative John Podesta, who said that likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will give serious thought to a woman as a vice presidential running mate.

Which I’m sure makes some people quiver and quake. After all, a running mate is supposed to be about picking someone unlike yourself so as to create a sense of balance.

A DUAL WOMAN ticket would totally trash that concept. Then again, this is an election cycle in which so much of the status-quo way of doing things is going straight into the trash can.

As far as the idea that two women running for office would scare away many voters, I’d say the kind of people who wouldn’t vote for a female pair at the top of the ticket are also the kind of people who have been going around thinking of Hillary as a “broad” whom they’d never vote for in the first place.

She’s not getting those kind of people – they’re the ones who think Trump’s trash talk about everyone unlike themselves makes him appealing. And makes the real majority of our society think he’s a goof.

 

CLINTON: Can she bring Trump ego in check?

It may well be that picking a female running mate will help appease those liberal ideologue types who now are hesitant to say they’d vote for Hillary because she’s supposedly “too conservative.”

IT WOULD MAKE her campaign unique in a historic way. And as for the argument I’ve heard from some that Hillary wouldn’t want attention distracted from her by a “first ever” female vice president, I’d have to say that’ nuts.

Hillary would be a first-ever female president. There’s no way a running mate takes attention from her – particularly if we get the image that somehow, Bill Clinton is back in a position of being able to influence the government.

A notion that I’m sure will scare certain people, while also amusing others who remember the nonsensical nature of those impeachment proceedings that took place nearly two full decades ago.

Besides, you’d have to admit it would be amusing to see if Hillary were to pick Sen. Elizabeth Warren (whom some people wanted to run for president herself). For she has done her share of Clinton bad-mouthing, and would probably have to publicly squirm at taking back some of her own hostile comments.

THEN, WE’D GET the sight a little later in the year of Trump having to give a concession speech after seeing some usually-Republican strongholds turn on him during a general election.

Just think of the shame that Trump would feel if he became the guy who couldn’t beat two dames (or whatever demeaning phrase he’d think of) in a presidential race?

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Trump brings bad name to people who want to lambast ‘politically correct’

I have always had my problems with people who want to complain that our society is too politically correct, or that politically correct is an abhorrent concept.

TRUMP: Won't listen to Mark Twain!

They try to make it seem like their viewpoints are somehow being censored; their attitudes are being silenced as part of some agenda that singles out people like themselves for abuse.

WHICH IS NONSENSE! As ought to be evidenced by the recent days of activity involving New York real estate developer Donald Trump’s fantasies about becoming U.S. president in next year’s election cycle.

If anything, Trump is giving us the classic example of what is wrong with people who want to complain about “political correctness” run amok. And I’ll be the first to admit I can be the most blunt of speakers at times.

Because Trump has tried claiming that the concept of political correctness is what is behind the people who want to criticize his attitudes toward women and the fact that Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly (whom I’ve had my own objections to at times) used the recent Republican presidential debate to call him out on it.

Trump wants us (the electorate) to think that he’s the victim. Because the fact that someone would criticize his demeaning thoughts about women (and they are truly demeaning). When he followed up with the comments that many interpreted to be about Kelly’s menstruation cycle (he now says he meant it was blood from her nose), he responded by claiming offense that anyone would think he was a “deviant” capable of being so crude and boorish.

THAT MAY BE the biggest laugh of this whole situation – that Trump would be amazed to learn that people don’t associate class and sophistication when they hear his name. As if all those gaudy structures he built throughout the years wasn’t enough evidence.

Scouring the used book stores for original PC

Now, Trump would like to turn this talk into a political correctness debate – claiming that his attitudes are being censored by that segment of the Republican Party that sees his campaigning as an embarrassment and a distraction to the remainder of the GOPers who have desires to run for president.

Except that he comes across the way too many people come off when they use the phrase “politically correct” as an epithet – it always seems like what bothers them is they can’t use words like “n----r” or “f----t” (as in the racial and homosexually-oriented slurs) without having other people around them crack down upon them for expressing their ignorance so clearly.

Proving the truth behind the old adage from author Mark Twain, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

EXCEPT THAT TRUMP seems determined every day to prove how much more foolish he can be – and how absurd it is that anybody takes his presidential talk seriously.

Is this really the face of a threat to our society?

It all reminds me of when I originally heard the “political correctness” phrase – some three decades ago when I was in college and the latest trend was to eliminate disparaging talk by replacing them with phrases that no person would use in natural speech.

People aren’t short, they’re height-challenged. They’re not bald, they’re follicle-challenged. Those phrases come across as nonsense-talk; they’re not a linguistic change I’m about to fight for. It was a fad that withered away quickly enough.

But that phrase has become the epithet that too many people use when they want to cut off opposition debate – the tyrants who think the whole world is supposed to shut up and do what they tell them to do.

BECAUSE THAT NOTION (which is one that I find to be as un-American as possible) better fits the Trump campaign mentality than any idea that he’s being picked on by women.

Which makes me think we’d all be better off if the Trump campaign were to go the way of other fads such as the pet rock, beanie babies or those people who used to dance the Macarena.

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Why Trump ain't fit for president

I didn't watch any of the would-be Republican presidential dreamers debate as it occurred Thursday, and I'm glad.


For if I had, I suspect I would still be repulsed. As it turns out, reading the wrap-ups and reports that came from Cleveland pretty much confirmed what I suspected.


DONALD TRUMP IS a dink, and anybody who takes his campaign (whether as a Republican or a political independent) seriously is in need of serious mental help,


Much of the public attention is going toward Megyn Kelly, the blonde Fox News anchor who presided over the debate and tried to call out Trump on some of his more misogynistic quips of recent past -- only to have him tell her basically she (and all other women) need to get over it.


Personally, I was amazed by his comments about the intelligence level of the U.S. government, which he seems to think is being conned by the Mexico government into accepting people into this country whom Mexico would just as soon be rid of.


I'm sure he'll try to defend his nonsense talk by saying he was actually praising Mexico; but in such a back-handed manner that it came across as the ultimate of insults to my ethnic brethren.


ALTHOUGH I'LL ADMIT it was totally in line with the kind of rhetoric he has been spewing about immigration and Mexico. I'm glad he didn't try to do some sort of back-talk that tried to apologize (but not really) for his past comments.


It seems that Donald Trump, the New York real estate developer who has had a hand in erecting so many ugly structures upon our society, is determined to be the 21st Century equivalent of Pat Buchanan.


Back when Buchanan tried running for president, he tried appealing for votes to those xenophobes amongst us who are determined to vilify Mexico as the root of all evil. Trump seems to want those voters now.


I don't dispute that those kind of people exist, and that they will vote. But Trump has now established himself as the loudmouth with the foreign-bashing spiel -- and the guy who probably thinks all people from Latin American nations are really "Mexicans" who "ought to be illegal" within the boundaries of the United States.


HE MAY GET some votes from older-generation Cuban exiles who have always resented the fact that they do not dominate the image of Latinos in this nation. Maybe even a stray Puerto Rican or Dominican.


But he can forget about the nonsense-talk he has spewed about winning the Latino vote. It's not going to happen!


What Trump is is an un-apologetic buffoon who wants to be able to spew insults upon everyone not like himself, then dump further trash-talk upon them when they try to defend themselves.


Just like the way he dealt with Kelly when she mentioned some of the insulting comments he had made about women in the past. It's her problem, he said. While probably believing that the Miss USA pageant that he owns will be great source material to provide the future first lady of a Trump administration.


HE CERTAINLY DOESN'T think it is his problem, even though anyone with sense would realize this is just a trash-talker who's a bully and who wants to believe that he's being bullied by everyone who refuses to give in to him.


Which is why I expect the Republican operatives and their voters ultimately will dump Trump. Although I also think he will run as an independent because he won't want anyone else telling him what to do during a campaign season.


And when he ultimately loses, he may well top Richard Nixon's 1962 concession speech for California governor -- the one where he said we, "won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any longer."


Let's just hope that a Trump political defeat some time next year won't result in a political comeback some six years later!


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