So what is it with kisses anyway? I thought they were supposed to be all warm and romantic and shit. But look at history and popular culture. Christ was betrayed to the Romans with a wet one from Judas. And in all of those mob movies, it’s always a kiss on the cheek that indicates it’s time for a fishing trip on Sheepshead Bay with a juke god tied around your ankles. I’m starting to think that kisses are greatly overrated.
Yes, this is actually pertinent to a current news event. After saying all sorts of nasty stuff about El Pendejo Presidente while polling 0%, Lindsey Graham has been nothing if not a faithful soldier. He is a frequent golf partner of Trump, which means suspending math where scoring is concerned, he has backed Trump over every insane, inflammatory thing he says, and is even willing to die on the hill of Muellergate in his judiciary committee. And how does Trump repay hid faithful minion?
Over the weekend Trump formally announced by Twitter his endorsement for Graham in the upcoming election. This news was immediately jumped on by the campaign. No not the Graham campaign, they’re all sitting around like their cell phone coverage crapped out. It was immediately pounced on by Democrat Jamie Harrison’s campaign, which sent out a national text message blast asking for cash to combat Trump’s evil influence, while touting a poll that has the race tied at 42-42.
This is going to be a real problem for vulnerable GOP incumbents, and it’s a no win situation for them. Trump is about as toxic as Chernobyl right now. He has totally botched the coronavirus pandemic response, and that’s hanging like an anchor around his neck. His heavy handed, dictatorial handling of the civil unrest in the wake of the George Floyd murder has everybody who’s still healthy pissed off at him, and his insistence, along with that of his moron son in law in touting the recovering stock market as proof that all is well with the economy again, at a time when 40 million people are laid off is only stressing the point that there are actually two economies out there, and Trump is interested in the wrong one. A recent poll showed Trump finally crashing through his previously sturdy floor of 40% in popularity, and coming to rest at 38%.
Recently vulnerable GOP incumbents have taken to what I like to call the 100 meter dash strategy when it comes to dealing with Trump fallout. They literally run down the hall with their heads down, mumbling Sorry, I have to take this call as they steam by reporters. This is like trying to decide which is better, being swallowed whole by the shark, or being bitten in half by the shark. If Trump feels they’re not being supportive enough, he slams them on Twitter, which costs them his base. But if he smiles gently on them and endorses them, their opponents slam them over the head with the endorsement. Reap what ye sow, jerk offs!
And it’s not just the vulnerable Senate incumbents who are in the soup, the GOP House incumbents are no better off. It was reported over the weekend that His Lowness is steaming full speed ahead on holding a mass rally somewhere, some time in the next two weeks. Trump is jonesing for that fix so bad right now that his makeup is clumping from the sweat. Where does he end up, and how badly does it hurt whomever was already there?
To be sure, there are still deep red places where Trump is still King Shit, but even then placement is crucial. If he lands in a place with a large metropolitan area, or a dense suburban population, he’ll only drive further away those suburban GOP voters who ditched him in 2018. Does Thom Tillis in North Carolina want to be seen on stage right now with Trump, unmasked, while the state’s coronavirus is spiking, and threatening to turn North Carolina into the New York City of the south? Does Martha McSally want to be anywhere near a stage with Trump in Arizona right now, with the virus threatening to overrun the hospitals, and freakin’ Doctors Without Borders hard at work on the Navajo nation? Does any suburban House incumbent in Florida want to share a stage with Trump, with a large elderly population and daily new highs in reported cases? Or does he have a Brazilian Bikini Wax appointment that he just can’t break?
This isn’t the first time that this has happened. In the 2006 midterms, as well as the 2008 general election then President George W. Bush pretty much left Air Force One parked in the garage, knowing how toxic he was. He preferred to take one for the team instead of indulging in one final victory lap with the crowds, to give his incumbents a chance to survive. The thing is, Bush Lite wasn’t running for reelection, he was termed out. But the funny thing is, with Trump it’s not really about his reelection. As with everything Trump, it’s all about his ego, and he doesn’t care who he takes down as long as he gets his jolt.
You know what never fails to bring a smile to my face, and a chuckle to my throat? Cast your mind back to January of 2017. Trump had just been sworn in, and Moscow Mitch McConnell, looking at the map that the Democrats had to defend in 2018 was talking covetously about creating a permanent GOP majority in the Senate. And now here it is, three short years later, and McConnell himself may not survive. And even if he does, his majority may not. Pucker up them lips Donnie Depends, and start spreading the love!
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
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My guess is he’ll bring it down here to Florida, Desantis doesn’t give a shit as long as he gets to suck up to Trump.
Could be Tennessee too, Wolf, if any local GOP pols are stupid enough to let him in.
The Washington Post
GOP expects to move its convention to Jacksonville after dispute with North Carolina over pandemic safeguards
Annie Linskey, Josh Dawsey 39 mins ago
I don’t wish it on anyone else but…
Oh God, help us.
Fort Worth’s mayor, Betsy Price (R) was saying they would love to have the convention come to Fort Worth.
people forget that Fort Worth is the conservative half of DFW.
No one else will take it. Nirenberg in San Antonio, Turner in Houston, Adler in Austin and Johnson in Dallas do not have any incentive to invite trump. I am sure Price could fill all the convention/rodeo halls in Fort Worth and maybe get Jerry Jones to open the stadium. I have to say the fifth largest city in Texas with the third highest number of cases and deaths from Covid 19 may be a good landing ground for trump and his convention.
I don’t think his kiss of death matters to him in the ways it did to others who had the same reputation. Bill Clinton stayed away because Al Gore was angry with him over the impeachment, among other things. Ditto as you say: Bush knew he was toxic so he stayed off the playing field. In the case of Trump, this means as you say, Republican senators are at even more risk than they already are if he insists on campaigning for them, especially now in light of the abysmal coronavirus response and his awful handling of the protests over George Floyd’s execution at the hands of the police. This guy is a current-day Typhoid Mary.
The irony of bringing up the Clinton/Gore matter is that most pundits, following the election in November, felt that Gore would have actually benefited if Clinton HAD been more involved with the election. (Then again, punditry is about exact a science as weather forecasting.) The general theory is this: Clinton was still incredibly, and wildly, popular with Democrats who felt he’d been the victim of a devious political ploy by an overzealous Republican Party that had begun its investigation over a failed land deal but ended up with a sleazy sexual affair with an intern. These Democratic voters were therefore incensed that Gore would not stand by Clinton, even after being vindicated, so a fair number felt no real need to vote for Gore. They felt if Clinton had been removed for his “crimes” and Gore wanted Clinton to stay away, that would’ve been one thing but quite another thing for Gore to want Clinton to stay away after being found “not guilty.”
Bush, on the other hand, made the decision for himself. Bush was still moderately popular within his own party as you cannot still maintain an overall popularity over 20% (his LOWEST overall approval rating was 25% in October of 2008) without maintaining a sizable approval rating within your own party (again, his LOWEST overall approval rating among GOP voters was 55% in October of 2008). By comparison, at the same point in 2000, Bill Clinton’s approval rating among all those polled was 58% (among just Democrats, it was 91%). Bush *could* have gone to reasonably safe areas–especially areas with large numbers of evangelical voters–to boost numbers for McCain and Palin or, at least, down-ballot candidates (Bush could’ve helped swing a couple of Alabama districts that sent Democrats to the US House; incidentally, both those districts ended up in GOP hands in 2010).
Ah, 2018…in the end, Moscow Mitch only got a grand total of TWO extra Senate seats and his party lost control of the House. I had Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide” running through my head the next day. Now, this year, the Kentucky Turtle has got a lot more to defend and a president gone rogue AND toxic. Hope he’s stockpiled on bourbon, cause he’s going to need it Election Night.
What you write is true BUT Democrats were looking to SWITCH four seats in 2018, not LOSE two. McConnell was hoping beyond all hope to avoid seeing his party lose a single Senate seat and, instead, he got a present.
Never confuse your fondest hope with a realistic goal, Joseph. Odds were always against that happening and I daresay that any credible Dem strategist would have said so. That “present” didn’t give McConnell anything he didn’t already have, including the lack of a filibuster-proof majority. And now he’s about to lose it all two years later…so it was for nothing.
As it happens, he has decided to have his first rally here in my hometown of Tulsa Oklahoma. home of the shameful 1921 race massacre, on JUNETEENTH!!! There are precisely zero coincidences in all of this. He’s making a massive FU statement.