So just like every other politician ever.
Traitor Watch - The 45 & 47 Thread
- Thread starter Wheelimus
- Start date
"Thet's way Ah'm votin' fer Trump! He don't dance aroun' answers; he jus' straight bullshits me!"
We have had a lot of different kinds of President in my lifetime. If someone can manage to get elected, anything that they lack can be supplied by helpers. Yeah, it is reassuring when a candidate can answer a lot of cold questions, because it demonstrates that they've thought things through and have a foundational understanding. Someone like that can be counted on to be consistent. But it isn't actually necessary for them to know all the answers. I haven't been watching interviews. I saw Kamala Harris dodge some questions in the debate (and a lot of times in the weeks after Biden's debate). I guess I don't understand how she was childish. She was evasive and that is how someone is when they mean to evade something. When I have seen her evasive, it was when she was asked a question whose possible answers are both problematic. She is in a delicate position, wanting as much of Biden shine as she can get and as little of the stink. The other side is trying to reverse that on her and the path between the gutters is narrow. There is no politically advantageous answer to "You've been in there for 3.5 years, why haven't you already implemented your plan." The answer is that she hasn't been in charge, but she cannot have a recording of that in her voice. I haven't seen her dodging questions because she didn't know the answer. Maybe someone could provide me a clip.
Ultimately, I'm not concerned with whether either of them knows the answer to a cold question. I do not want a President that makes snap decisions and I also don't want one that thinks they know everything. I wish candidates would say they didn't know when they didn't know. The President always has enough time to ask for some advice, even with an ICBM in the sky. And there's pretty much no one who won't answer when POTUS asks for a phone a friend.
The absolutely essential skill that cannot be supplemented is the ability to assess their own abilities. If you don't know you need help, you won't get it. Something that has been very clearly and very openly demonstrated for more than a decade is that Donald Trump is a total failure at assessing his own abilities. With all of his terrible shortcomings, he could be a much better President if he would read his teleprompt, vet his public statements, and find and heed good policy advisors. But he won't. You know he won't. I believe Kamala Harris will get advice and make a good first draft on building her team and I believe she will also listen to criticism and adapt. Not because of what I've seen her do, but because people who are elected President do this. It's the normal thing. They want to do a good job, whether because of patriotism or because history has its eyes on them. Donald Trump not doing it is an outlier.
That clip above is a preeminent demonstration of Trump's problem and he won't see it. He is criticizing Harris' ability to answer a cold question, because he believes he does it well and he doesn't. His failure to see that is why he is a failure as a leader. News media said Harris had intense preparation for the debate and I think there is probably an indication in there that some of the skills to win a debate are struggles for her, but she practiced and prepared and she mopped the floor with him and none of THOSE skills themselves are the essential skill that she needs. The essential skill was that she did the intense preparation because she knew she needed it. The whole week leading up to the debate CNN was reporting that insiders said Harris would goad Trump's ego to knock him off balance. I'm sure his campaign reads CNN. I'm sure they mentioned it to him. But it still worked. Because Trump has no story arc. He will not improve himself. He will not listen to good advice. His shortcomings cannot be bridged.
Ultimately, I'm not concerned with whether either of them knows the answer to a cold question. I do not want a President that makes snap decisions and I also don't want one that thinks they know everything. I wish candidates would say they didn't know when they didn't know. The President always has enough time to ask for some advice, even with an ICBM in the sky. And there's pretty much no one who won't answer when POTUS asks for a phone a friend.
The absolutely essential skill that cannot be supplemented is the ability to assess their own abilities. If you don't know you need help, you won't get it. Something that has been very clearly and very openly demonstrated for more than a decade is that Donald Trump is a total failure at assessing his own abilities. With all of his terrible shortcomings, he could be a much better President if he would read his teleprompt, vet his public statements, and find and heed good policy advisors. But he won't. You know he won't. I believe Kamala Harris will get advice and make a good first draft on building her team and I believe she will also listen to criticism and adapt. Not because of what I've seen her do, but because people who are elected President do this. It's the normal thing. They want to do a good job, whether because of patriotism or because history has its eyes on them. Donald Trump not doing it is an outlier.
That clip above is a preeminent demonstration of Trump's problem and he won't see it. He is criticizing Harris' ability to answer a cold question, because he believes he does it well and he doesn't. His failure to see that is why he is a failure as a leader. News media said Harris had intense preparation for the debate and I think there is probably an indication in there that some of the skills to win a debate are struggles for her, but she practiced and prepared and she mopped the floor with him and none of THOSE skills themselves are the essential skill that she needs. The essential skill was that she did the intense preparation because she knew she needed it. The whole week leading up to the debate CNN was reporting that insiders said Harris would goad Trump's ego to knock him off balance. I'm sure his campaign reads CNN. I'm sure they mentioned it to him. But it still worked. Because Trump has no story arc. He will not improve himself. He will not listen to good advice. His shortcomings cannot be bridged.
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He loads a cannon with grapeshot and it doesn't matter that cannons aren't very precise.
Bluster is often confused with knowledge.
If you asked both candidates a super niche question about a super niche discipline they both do not have a good understanding of then…
Kamala likely wouldn’t say she didn’t know but would pivot into something about having a great team around her to handle such things.
Trump would try to answer it and (again, try!) to sound like he knows what he’s doing even though he was just as clueless as Harris.
If you asked both candidates a super niche question about a super niche discipline they both do not have a good understanding of then…
Kamala likely wouldn’t say she didn’t know but would pivot into something about having a great team around her to handle such things.
Trump would try to answer it and (again, try!) to sound like he knows what he’s doing even though he was just as clueless as Harris.
A really good answer is, "I'm looking forward to really digging into that and getting all of the ideas on the table." See? From this, the listener can unpack "It isn't going to be my job to have 50 PhDs. It is going to be my job to make the decision." And probably Kamala's supporters are more interested in hearing that than Trump's are.
My first inclination when Trump accused Harris of sounding childish was to comment on Trump's well-documented tendency toward projection. The problem with that here is, it would take some self-awareness (that he can't admit, of course) that he IS, in fact, childish for him to be able to project that onto Harris.
I realized I am talking to myself here, but I've done several edits and didn't want to keep doing it. And this parenthetical wouldn't flow as well up there.
The best response to this tack that has been pressed very heavily is to keep rerunning the ACA discussion from the debate. Trump told us 8 years ago that he was going to repeal ACA and replace it with something better. He failed to repeal. And ironically the one part that they did get repealed, the individual mandate, killed their strategy for getting it thrown out in court. If he had something better, and I mean better in the way that he really means us to understand, that everyone is going to like it better, not just insurance companies, it would have been very persuasive to publish the details and let people start demanding it. He didn't publish it, because he didn't have anything like that. All he had was getting rid of the parts that insurance companies hated and the public won't demand that. He's on the campaign trail again now, saying he's going to replace it with something better, but he was actually in charge for 4 years and this isn't a new issue and he didn't get it done AND HE STILL CAN'T SAY WHAT HE WANTS. If 8 years isn't long enough to get your concept of a plan into a plan, then there's no point in voting for you. 4 years isn't going to be enough.
Damning Video Shows Roger Stone Is Plotting a Coup for November
The Donald Trump ally has some sick plans for a potential Republican victory.
newrepublic.com
imagine if we actually had an Attorney General...
I actually had to explain to someone that a president has to be like Captain Kirk.
Captain Kirk didn't run the Enterprise by himself or have all the answers whenever there was a crisis. He knew a lot and made decisions, but he often relied on input from Spock, Bones and Scotty pertaining to their fields so he had the information necessary to make those decisions.
Believe it or not, this actually got through to him.
Captain Kirk didn't run the Enterprise by himself or have all the answers whenever there was a crisis. He knew a lot and made decisions, but he often relied on input from Spock, Bones and Scotty pertaining to their fields so he had the information necessary to make those decisions.
Believe it or not, this actually got through to him.
I mean... star trek is pretty ubiquitous in popular culture. There's a reason starfleet captains always ASK for options.
I'd generally prefer a president to be more like Picard, but apparently pop culture has exaggerated the differences between the two.
With every rally his claims and promises become less and less veiled. Now hes promising to bring back the Aliens and Sedition Act of 1798 and use it on the nationwide level to mass deport all those "Savage gangs" he keeps claiming are all over Aurora and the like
The person I was talking to doesn't even know who Picard is.
Trump’s plan f or mass deportations invokes ‘dangerous’ 226-year-old law
‘Operation Aurora’ turns to a wartime law granting the president uniltateral authority to target foreigners for removal without due process
www.independent.co.uk
ramping up the racism...
Stephen Miller spoke at that same rally, so this is undoubtedly his idea. It appears he's back on the campaign team and wants his job in the White House back. Whatever that job was.
Secretary of the Unholy?
Anti-christ liason.