Believe it or not Trump recently signaled a small part of his brain is still functional. He tried to be nice (sort of) to the Obamas. I think it was more than pure survival instinct. I think it dawned on Trump, especially with the shift of Democrat’s nominee from Biden to Harris that both Barack and Michelle Obama would go on TV in front of a HUGE audience and carve him into tiny Trump pieces like a pair of Sushi Chefs performing in a high end restaurant. It turns out Trump was right to be afraid.
Trump, being a lifelong stone cold racist could never abide a black guy being President. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying or in complete denial of reality. Trump’s racism is why he latched on to the “Birther” movement – it was both a way to get himself into the news but also (he hoped) make Obama vulnerable in 2012. Trump’s efforts did get him attention but being Trump he overdid things and wound up with some egg on his face. So Obama spent a few delightful minutes tweaking Trump at that WH Correspondents dinner. Trump never forgets or forgives a slight and have a ‘blankety blank n-word’ humiliating him like that and publicly is a wound that will never heal.
Not that Trump hasn’t tried and when via the flukiest of flukes he became President he could extract a considerable amount of revenge. Even as an EX President Trump hasn’t let up and in retrospect I’m not so sure him using Obama’s name instead of Biden’s so often this year was a case of cognitive decline. However, even Trump came to realize he pushed things too far. He knows damn well that convention speakers have the text of what they will say reviewed. And edited if the Candidate feels remarks are off message or could pose problems they don’t want the campaign to have to deal with.
Trump had counted on running against an old-school “Gentleman Joe Biden” who would be strongly critical but not truly smack him with brass knuckles. However Kamala Harris came out of the starting blocks calling him out as a serial sexual assaulter, fraudster and general con man and Trump saw what she did to his SCOTUS nominees. What he feared was that another couple of incredibly smart (and longtime) friends of hers who happened to be highly accomplished lawyers themselves wouldn’t just speak at the DNC, but would be given free reign to throw punches. HARD ones. Including after they’d knocked Trump down.
The Obamas are well removed from public life and politics and only come out for special occasions Like nominating conventions. And after over a decade of putting up with Trump’s racist bullshit, they were at a point in life where they could tee off on him if they wanted. And that finally they were ready to cut off his tiny, shriveled “junk” and stuff it in his fat mouth.
Michelle Obama was up first and it didn’t take long before it was clear that her “When they go low we go high” attitude was retired. Michelle was in clear ‘You want to throw down Donald? Fine. Let’s throw down’ mode. She proverbially got right up in his face. And his loser children’s too which had Fredo 2 (Eric) on social media whining “Mommy!!!!” Don Jr. was probably too coked out to be paying attention and these days (onetime) wannabe Princess Ivanka seems to be back to just trying to be forgotten. Anyway, early in her remarks Michelle Obama delivered a classy yet devastating takedown of the Trumps and so many other smug-assed people born to wealth and/or privilege. As reported in The Washington Post:
Harris “understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward,” Obama said. “We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No
The entire WaPo article is worth the time to read because it focuses on a sentence that’s also devastating because as it notes it redefines affirmative action:
But there are six words in that stretch that extend well beyond Trump. Obama used a phrase that succinctly and elegantly reframes the ongoing debate over inequality in the United States and how it might be addressed: “the affirmative action of generational wealth.”
The whole article is as I said worth your time. So is watching Michelle Obama’s entire speech but I’ll give you a supercut of the highlights that’s much shorter:
Then we moved on to Michelle’s husband, our former President. He too clearly decided it was time to punch back and it was like watching Muhammed Ali dancing around Sonny Liston landing jabs at will then unleashing the heavy combination punches. He spoke for a good while longer than Michelle and it wasn’t always soaring rhetoric but it was compelling just the same. Still, I have NO doubt there was one minute of it that will make the slow burn Trump felt as the Correspondents dinner seem like an ice bath. He didn’t just make fun of Trump’s whining from the time he rode down his fake gold escalator, he hit Trump where it really hurts. Crowd size. And in a not very subtle way another type of size. Watch for yourself:
Forget “twofer” – this was a “threefer.” Mocking Trump for being a self-centered whiny punk, tossing in the “weird” thing Tim Walz got going and which has really gotten under Trump’s skin and using crowd size to remind Trump of what Stormy Daniels told us as in another “size” when it comes to Trump. When Obama glanced down at his hands close together at the end he might as well have been telling Trump ‘Stormy says you’d got a little dick.’ Being the racist that he is you know where Trump’s thoughts went next – some black guy saying ‘my dick’s bigger than yours’ and if Ronny Jackson wasn’t on hand to give Trump a knockout shot old Donnie would have had a stroke!
There was so much more that I could talk about but the main thing is this. Former Presidents (and their spouses) make an effort to be low key. With the exception of a quip or two, sometimes even a sharp one at a candidate of the opposing Party at a convention they try hard to refrain from getting involved in regular political arguments of the day. It’s a unwritten code. Attacks on policy are inevitable but a sitting President tries not to get personal. Same for after out of office. And former Presidents by tradition avoid engaging even if cheap shots get taken, if not directly from a sitting President then on their behalf by members of their Party. It’s easy to punch someone who’s not allowed to punch back.
Well, going back to where I started I think it dawned on Trump that given all the vile, despicable things he and his supporters have said about the Obama’s over the years because he knew unlike him they were honorable and would stick to the “rules” HE had changed the game. HE ignored the rules and for a time didn’t worry about it. He knew Biden wouldn’t allow personal shots at him from the Obamas but with Harris it was a different ball game. Make no mistake. Neither Barack or Michelle Obama would have taken some of the shots at Trump they did had the Harris campaign not signed off on them.
Ok, maybe IF Barack Obama had described that hand gesture thing she would have said not to go there. And it might have been an in the moment thing on his part. Still, a half day later I’m convinced Trump comes away with the two things I’ve talked about.
- Michelle Obama called him out as a privileged rich guy who wouldn’t have been jack-sh*t had he not been born to that wealth and privilege. And worse, called HIM and people like him out for being the REAL beneficiaries of affirmative action.
- Barack Obama called him a whiny punk, made fun of his crowd sizes and worst of all said he has ‘tiny junk.’
The question now is how Trump will respond. His instinct will be to lash out but part of him knows that is exactly the wrong thing to do. As I said at the beginning he might well have realized he needed to try and take things down a few notches. With his fears realized and the Obamas coming out and throwing hard, bruising punches last night it was a case of as the title says the Obama’s striking back. Somewhere in what’s left of Trump’s brain and most definitely in that of the few pros he has on his top campaign staff there’s the realization that the Obamas could do more, MUCH more.
They didn’t just fire twin torpedoes into the side of SS Trumptanic, they lobbed in some shells from big naval guns. And sent a warning there’s plenty more where that came from so stand down. They’ll put up with some half-hearted comment from Trump about them being mean and nasty but that’s about all they will put up with. What’s clear however is that the message has been sent – the days of ‘When they go low we go high’ are over. Trump has been told if he wants to try and play bar fighter he’s going to be in there in a real fight with people who are tougher and stronger than he is, and unlike him have taken actual blows and injuries and won’t shy away from finishing anything Trump tries to start.
There’s already some of that going on in general. The GOP in general is beside itself because Democrats are actually fighting back! Worse, it turns out they are GOOD and fighting and worse than that SOME of them actually LIKE it. What’s a punk-ass conservative bully to do these days? Especially with none other that the Obamas saying “enough.” We are in for some interesting times to be sure.
About phucking time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bullies rely on intimidating those they bully. Those phucking days ARE PHUCKING OVER YOU PHUCKING PRIVILEGED PUNK. Note to you entitled morons: show up at my voting place shooting your mouth off or even dressed like you are a badass, packing a weapon…go ahead. There’s a scene in Yellowstone where John Dutton charges into the office of the billionaire trying to build a hotel next to his ranch. The billionaire has an armed security guard that tries to stop him but John cold cocks him with a wine bottle. Later the guard said: good move. John replied: it wasn’t a move. I’m just meaner than you. So punks unless you’ve been raised in violence, sent to the pen for a law that can’t be justified, threatened daily, but survived without being assaulted, bring it phucking on. How do you think I pulled that off? I’m meaner than you marshmallows. You are just playing warrior. I’m the real phucking deal. I’m glad the democrats have realized this is a FIGHT TO THE DEATH. As Patton said: war isn’t about dying for your country. It’s about the other son of a bitch dying for his. Exactly. Freedom has a cost. Go to Arlington National Cemetery then tell me it doesn’t. We can all sing phucking kumbaya when the fascists are dead, in jail, or have slunk back into their spider holes.
Michelle and Barak Obama are a couple of the classiest folks in our country for certain and probably on the planet. Even when they do put von shitzi in his place, they do it with a certain panache.
Hey magats! Michelle and Barak are what intelligent people look and sound like. You probably ought to keep a couple vids of their speeches so you can use them to compare to your turd emperor. Maybe you’ll get a clue as to just how fucking stupid he is.
I knew going in that I had to watch their speeches live, and WAS NOT disappointed! Far from it; my wife had gone up and gotten ready for bed, and heard me whooping and laughing as the takedowns came one after another. I am way beyond glad I’ve chosen to watch this edition of the DNC.