The end of the line for Donald J. Trump

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.
illustration: by Jack Brummet, 2011 (from his first possible run)

Fallout, Lust, Ambition & Madness. Oh DJT, you put a cork in it tonight. I've had The Willies about you for the last year or so but tonight, you laid my fears to rest. 

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The final shot of the 3rd Presidential Debate

This image was found by Jeff Clinton. . .somewhere.

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Donald J. Trump's reverse bandwagon juggernaut

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.

As a politics geek, it's fascinating watching this shipwreck, especially the accelerating Reverse Bandwagon Juggernaut of friends and foes jumping off as the boat takes on water and lists even further. It's actually hard now to feature just how the debate tomorrow will look.

Mr. Donald J. Trump has nothing to lose. It's coming down to a Captain Queeg moment tomorrow night. Maybe DJT will come out all contrite, and every answer will be like a cocktail of Socrates, Jesus, and Bobby Kennedy; but you know he's going to come in hot. And I think probably half of HRC's debate prep must be based on the five or six targeted crooked Hillary accusations.

It is good fortune for Hillary that the WikiLeaks release of her speeches for corporations occurred just when this whole firestorm went down. They are virtually unnoticed.

So tomorrow we'll see contrition, defiance, or savage counterattacks and scorched earth craziness. Or, something like, I apologized yesterday, now let's move on to Crooked Hillary and these WikiLeaks. Will they pillory him? Will the moderators and/or the audience pile on? For all we know, more Trump tapes will appear tomorrow (his Apprentice 1st and 2nd season producer says there are tapes that make the Access Hollywood tapes look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm).

I'm not sure an amazing performance tomorrow can make a difference now. Stay tuned, eh?

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Donald Trump gets taken to Chinatown

by Jack Brummet, Republican Family Values Editor

Of all the things DJT said in the Presidential Debate last night, what most offended me was when he referred to President Obama as “your President” while speaking to Hillary late in the debate. It flared up on FB, Reddit, Twitter, and other sites. Was this tied into his earlier refusal to apologize ("I have nothing to say.") for his five year birther jihad; because he believed [and still believes] the President is illegitimate and therefore not his President? To have not said Our President offended me most, but I imagine everyone has their own choices...God knows he gave the nation so many tonight.

"Not global warming, like you think and your President thinks.” - Donald J. Trump

This debate will go down as a turning point in 2016 and in the annals of great/insane debates. In the spin room, Rudy G said he wasn't sure if Donald would be attending the next two debates. Interestingly, the guy who boasted of his testosterone levels a couple of weeks ago (and by implication, last night)couldn't find the "stamina" to finish the debate.

Trump would be smart to duck out; he has nothing to lose, and would, probably, be cutting his losses. Sure, we'll call him a pussy, but all the razzing and the media barrage would be nothing compared to one more monumental f***up like this. I'm sure his base loves him still, but he lost the outliers tonight, and I'll be really surprised if his head to head national poll numbers don't show a 6% drop by next week.

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Hillary Clinton's brilliant new ad on the September 2015 GOP-Tea Party debates

Watch: New Hillary ad brilliantly mocks the Republican debate and the candidates' deafening silence on the REAL issues facing the American people.  

Watch: New Hillary ad brilliantly mocks the Republican debate ... 

Posted by Occupy Democrats on Thursday, September 17, 2015

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Moments and photos from Tuesday's Presidential debate

By Pablo Fanque and Mona Goldwater

Both Governor Romney and President Obama couldn't seem to get Lorraine Osario's name straight.  “Lorraina?" "Lorraine?” "Laurie?" “Lorena?”  Come on guys, is it that hard?

President Obama: "The day after the [Libya] attack, Governor, I stood in the Rose Garden, and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror. ... And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the secretary of state, our U.N. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, Governor, is offensive. That's not what we do. That's not what I do as president. That's not what I do as commander in chief."

Mitt Romney: "I think it's interesting the president just said something which is that on the day after the attack, he went in the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror. You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration. ... I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror."

President Obama: "Get the transcript."

CNN'S Candy Crowley, the moderator: "He did, in fact, sir."

President Obama: "Can you say that a little louder, Candy?" (Laughter, applause.)

Candy Crowley: "He did call it an act of terror. ... It did, as well, take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that."

A compilation of the interactions between the candidates and the moderator:

President Obama:  ”When I hear Governor Romney say he’s a big coal guy — and keep in mind when — Governor, when you were governor of Massachusetts, you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said, ‘This plant kills,’ and took great pride in shutting it down. And now suddenly you’re a big champion of coal.”

Mitt Romney:   "[An] important topic and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly as I was serving as governor of my state, because I had the chance to pull together a Cabinet ... I went to my staff, and I said, 'How come all the [candidates] for these jobs ... are all men?' They said, 'Well, these are the people that have the qualifications.' And I said, 'Well, gosh, can't ... we find ... some women that are also qualified?' ... I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks?' And I brought us whole binders full of women."

President Obama:  “Look, the cost of lowering rates for everybody across the board by 20 percent, along with what he also wants with eliminating the estate tax, along with what he wants to do with corporate changes in the tax code, it costs about $5 trillion. Governor Romney then also wants to spend about $2 trillion on additional military programs even though the military is not asking for them. That is $7 trillion. He also wants to continue the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthiest Americans; that’s another trillion dollars. That’s $8 trillion. Now, what he says is that he is going to make sure this doesn’t add to the deficit and he’s going to cut middle class taxes but when he is asked, ‘How are you going to do it? Which deductions, which loopholes are you going to close?’ He can’t tell you."

Mitt Romney: "Your rate comes down, and the burden also comes down on you for one more reason, and that is every middle-income taxpayer no longer will pay any tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. No tax on your savings. That makes life a lot easier."

President Obama:  "The suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the Secretary of State, our U.N. Ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. That’s not what we do. That’s not what I do as president, that’s not what I do as Commander in Chief."

Mitt Romney:  [To President Obama] "You'll get your chance in a moment."  Disrespecting the office?  

President Obama:  "When folks mess with Americans, we go after them."

President Obama:  "We haven’t heard from the governor any specifics, beyond Big Bird and eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, in terms of how he pays for that.”

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A YouTube compilation of John McCain's fidgets, eye bulging, tongue flicking, grimacing, and eye rolling from last night's debate

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Presidential Debate Three: Obama edges out McCain, but just barely

"I love you, man." "I love you too." Click to enlarge.

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Our verdict on the third Presidential debate?: Obama edged out McCain, but just barely. . .exactly what he needed to do.

"You didn't tell the American people the truth," Senator John McCain charged. McCain delivered his best debate performance to date. However, his face told the tale. He was blinking at an alarming rate, mugging, and flashing a smile that bordered on a grimace, or even a rictus [1]. At times he seemed to be involuntarily mugging like The Joker.

As always, cool, cerebral, charming, unflappable, and surging ahead in the polls, Obama expertly parried each thrust, and, at times, lobbed a few Molotov cocktails of his own, all the while appearing absolutely Presidential. At the end of the debate, there was little question of who the voters would want to lead America until 2013.

Obama held fire, wisely. Ahead now in every single poll, and in some by 14 points, there was no reason to jump on the ledge in any issue. Obama performed admirably. . .probably his coolest performance in all three debates. But he is on top: he had nothing to win and everything to lose. And he expertly worked that angle. McCain offered him a chance to decimate his running mate Sarah Palin and Obama held back. What could he possibly gain from attacking the wildly popular Palin? Obama effectively diffused the Obama-Palin campaign's unending attempts to link him as some sort of acolyte of college professor and former Weather Underground mastermind William Ayers. A.C.O.R.N. was also mentioned repeatedly by McCain and Obama--rightfully--basically brushed off the association, leaving McCain pounding sand.

Arguably, the key exchange of the debate was when the frustrated McCain finally said in a clearly scripted remark, "Sen. Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

Obama fired back and dismissed McCain's claim of political independence from The Administration:

"If I've occasionally mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies, it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people - on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities - you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush," he said.

Senator McCain passed up the chance to say his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, was qualified to become President (and Obama, also wisely, didn't touch it). McCain did praise her performance as governor and expressed admiration for her work on behalf of special needs children (which according to Alaskans is not a given at all).

McCain referred repeatedly to a voter, Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Toledo, Ohio Obama had an exchange with. They both directly spoke to "Joe" several times, and in the end, it went nowhere.

McCain's most critical debate mistake was seeming to dismiss the mother's health exception on the abortion issue. "I am completely supportive of a ban on late-term abortions, partial-birth or otherwise, as long as there's an exception for the mother's health and life, and this did not contain that exception," Obama clearly stated.

McCain sarcastically paid tribute to "the eloquence of Senator Obama. He's (for) health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything." "mother's health," he seemed to be saying, "...who cares?" And with that statement, Senator McCain lost virtually every potential swing vote from pro-choice voters.
McCain tried to raise the issue of public financing, but was effortlessly slapped down by Obama. Yes, Obama did go back on his pledge to consult with McCain and hopefully use only public financing in the campaign. While McCain opted for public financing, any possible ethical or moral advantage has been utterly neutralized by the RNC with its massive war chest relentlessly--and indirectly--pumping gushers of money into the McCain campaign.

With only a couple of exceptions, the Presidential campaign is now being waged in battleground states that were solidly Republican in 2004 - states like Virginia, Colorado, and Iowa - and in most of them, Obama holds significant leads in the polls. In the end, this debate changes nothing. It's on to November 4th!

[1] A gaping grimace: "his mouth gaping in a kind of rictus of startled alarm" (Richard Adams). We often think of the rictus as a death-grin.
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The night of the last Presidential tilt and the Obama talking points email

This morning, the Obama campaign's Press Secretary, Sean Smith, e-mailed a list of debate talking points to the media.

It sounds more like news than the partisan diatribe you might expect!:


-------- Original Message --------
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:37:27 -0500
From: Sean Smith [s***mith@barackobama.com]
To: Sean Smith [s***mith@barackobama.com]

* This is John McCain's last chance to turn this race around and somehow convince the American people that his erratic response to this economic crisis doesn't disqualify him from being President.

* Just this weekend the weekend, John McCain vowed to "whip Obama's you-know-what" at the debate, and he's indicated that he'll be bringing up Bill Ayers to try to distract voters.

* So we know that Senator McCain will come ready to attack Barack Obama and bring his dishonorable campaign tactics to the debate stage.

Obama continues to lead on the economic crisis with a rescue plan for Main Street.

* Over the course of the campaign, Barack Obama has laid out a set of policies that will grow our middle class and strengthen our economy.

* But he knows we face an immediate economic emergency that requires urgent action - on top of the plans he's already laid out - to help workers and families and communities struggling right now.

* That's why Barack Obama is introducing a comprehensive four-part Rescue Plan for the Middle Class - to immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities, and help struggling homeowners.

* This is a plan that can and should be implemented immediately.

* Obama has shown steady leadership during this crisis and offered concrete solutions to move the country forward - and his Rescue Plan for the Middle Class builds on the plans to strengthen the economy and rebuild the middle class that he's laid out over the course of this campaign.

* Already in this campaign, he's unveiled plans to give 95 percent of workers and their families a tax cut, eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000, bring down the cost of health care for families and businesses; and create millions of new jobs by investing in the renewable energy sources.

* John McCain has been erratic and unsteady since this crisis began - staggering from position to position and trying to change the subject away from the economy by launching false character attacks. ---o0o---

One more dull debate, with McCain edging Obama?

By Pablo Fanque

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The two candidates debated last night in Nashville, and predictably clashed on the economy, taxes, the economic bailout, and the wars in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. We heard very little we hadn't heard before.

John McCain needed a bump from this debate to raise his standings and give him a shot in what appears to be an electoral college lock by Obama. He probably will not get that bump. He did however, mostly redeem himself from his earlier debate performance with a relaxed, folksy performance, "my friends." He was short on substance and never seriously went on the attack. Not completely unexpectedly, there were a couple of strange moments: when answering Tom Brokaw's question about who he would appoint Treasury Secretary, he answered "Not you Tom!" and at one point he vaguely gestured toward Barack Obama and called him "that one." McCain did not bring up any of the mud-slinging "character" issues his partner in crime, Sarah Palin has been hammering away at in rallies recently.

For his part, Obama provided more specifics, and consistently linked McCain with George W. Bush. In a dust-up on foreign policy, Obama hammered away at McCain's steadiness. "This is a guy who sang bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, who called for the annihilation of North Korea—that I don't think is an example of speaking softly." Obama, however, once again appeared stiff and detached. The man just doesn't seem to be able to loosen up on stage, and while he is a great orator, his skills in retail politics are lacking. He never quite connects in these debates the way he seems to when he is alone in the spotlight.

If the debate had a winner, it may have been John McCain. While Obama once again appeared Presidential, McCain was able to connect with the audience in a more folksy way, reminiscent of the old John McCain that people loved. Unfortunately for John McCain, the old John McCain rarely makes an appearance these days, ceding stage time to the George Bush-lapdog McCain.

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video of the Saturday night live Palin-Biden debate parody 10-4-2008

Here is a video clip of the full Biden-Palin debate parody from Saturday Night Live, October 4th, 2008:

The Great Debate, McCain v. Obama, Part II

Click the debaters to enlarge


To call it the great debate is to besmirch the memory of Lincoln and Douglas, particularly now that the level of mud-slinging has accelerated to epic proportions on both sides. But just like the train-wreck you see coming, you can't take your eyes off the track. Here's hoping Obama shows some real passion and that McCain comes completely unhinged (there's only about two screws left in those hinges, and they look pretty rusty). Whatever happens, tonight's dust-up in Nashville should prove interesting.

Will Obama come out warm fully locked-on to the voters, and ready to do battle (as opposed to a more staid parry and thrust)? Or will he play the cool detached professor again? Will John McCain come out as the folksy "maverick," or the deranged Captain Queeg? Will they stick close to their established personas and leave us scratching our heads at one more snooze-fest, or will one of them take a real shot at either the issues or their opponent?
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Doggoneit! Aden Nak's debate flow chart + bonus photo of Sarah Winker Palin

Doggoneit! It looks like Aden Nak (addennak.com) has captured Sarah Palin's debate flow perfectly. He posted this a couple of hours after the debate last night.

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Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy - Lloyd Bentsen's famous zinger from the Quayle-Bentsen debate

You have to just love the look on Senator Dan Quayle's face after the famous lines from Senator Lloyd Bentsen...



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Vice Presidential debate: A net win for Biden, and a resurrection for Sarah Palin

By Pablo Fanque,

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The Senator and Governor clashed in last night's debate on energy, drilling in Alaska, global warming, the wars in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, income taxes, The Failed Presidency (although they both took shots at 43 and Dick Cheney), corporate tax breaks and a number of other issues. They agreed on Israel (they're our peace-loving buddies) and same sex marriage (neither of them support it...the idiots).

Sarah Palin made a few minor mistakes, mispronounced the Afghanistan commander's name, and ignored many questions, but she absolutely outperformed expectations. It was like this was hardly the same woman we saw fumbling questions as harmless as what magazines she read in her Katy Couric interview.

Biden was clearly in better command of the facts and figures. He was less irritating, more charming, and yes, Presidential.

Palin brought up Alaska, her mayorship over and over, drilling and energy probably too often. She used the word "Maverick" about McCain and herself at least ten times during the debate. Finally, Biden explained at the end, how they weren't really mavericks at all on the issues that mattered, but were really just parading around in Maverick costumes.

Biden did not go over his time limits, did not bully or intimidate her, and made no verbal gaffes or infelicities. He was prime-time Smilin Joe, courtly, respectful and engaging. Unlike John McCain in the last debate, he often looked at the Governor and smiled (Palin to be fair also looked at him; she also mugged for the camera and winked). Biden was acidic in his excoriation of McCain's position on the Iraq war, and called him the "odd man out" for his refusal to accept a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Joe was good.

Sarah Palin, apparently at the urging of McCain officials, pronounced Nuclear Nukuler numerous times. She dropped the G from almost every gerund, and often used folksy vernacular like "betcha" instead of bet you, and even dog-gone-it.

They were mostly very civil, and spent their time attacking the other guy's Presidential candidate. Palin said Obama had voted to raise taxes 94 times. Biden's rebuttal disagreed with that number and trumped it: "by the same reckoning," he said, McCain voted "477 times to raise taxes."

I don't think The Governor changed anyone's mind. Biden may have changed a few. For either side, there was no net harm. With McCain-Palin slipping steadily in the polls, this can only mean real fireworks for next week's town hall Presidential debate at Belmont College in Nashville, and the October 15th domestic debate.

Finally, for all the talk about Gwen Ifull being a partisan and in the OPbama camp, she performed masterfully, treated each candidate very well, and did not lob any bombs Palin's way she wasn't tossing at Biden too. Unfortunately she never lobbed the gotcha bomb at Palin. I wonder if she felt constrained after all the controversy over her book and politics.

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Obama to McCain: You were wrong! The best video moment of the first Presidential Debate

"You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003, and at the time when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shia and Sunni. And you were wrong. " Barack Obama to John McCain, September 26, 2008

"We've spent over $600 billion so far, soon to be $1 trillion. We have lost over 4,000 lives. We have seen 30,000 wounded, and most importantly, from a strategic national security perspective, al-Qaeda is resurgent, stronger now than at any time since 2001. We took our eye off the ball. " Barack Obama to John McCain, September 26, 2008
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Was it a tie? Obama and McCain survive to fight another day?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

I hoped for more from the first Presidential Debate of the 2008 season. In the end, you'd have to call it a tie/dead heat/stalemate. The very fact it was a tie undoubtedly translates to a loss for McCain, who needed the win.

In this first, "foreign policy" debate it took over 30 minutes for the candidates--admittedly facing a national and world economic crisis--to actually get around to foreign policy issues. And when they did, Senator McCain failed to expose any real weakness in Senator Obama's grasp of foreign policy. McCain, now trailing in the tracking polls, needed a big win tonight. No cigar. McCain never seemed in control of his message; Obama never seemed to waver. McCain almost conceded the change issue to Obama. He never brought it up.

McCain accused Barack Obama of compiling "the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate" and accused him by my count seven times, in various forms, of being naive and clueless. For his part, Obama praised McCain too many times. And he let McCain's jabs stand when he should have counterpunched. He let McCain's comments on his 900 million in earmarks stand, when this was clearly one more case of inside baseball. McCain came off as an arrogant and cranky professor lecturing a clueless student. . .while Obama proved time and again his mastery of the facts of numerous and complex foreign policy issues. The new kid on the block relentlessly rattled off facts and figures on the devastating and costly war in Iraq. He didn't just say the war was wrong: he showed how the war was wrong, by proving we were fighting the wrong war.



Obama scored big points for accusing McCain of being wrong on Iraq, and for fighting the wrong war by ignoring the real issue of the growing presence of al Qaeda in Afghansitan and Pakistan. McCain did not rebut him.

Early in the debate, Obama refused to address an arcane point about the inner -workings of Senate committees because it was "inside baseball." However he left several of McCain's inside comments about earmarks stand, and didn't go after McCain on any of his own spending troubles when McCain tried to take the high road.

On the podium, they both looked fine (even McCain, who can look pretty spooky...he had an expert makeup job). It was mostly a tie, but McCain often came off as snarky, and was generally hunched over his podium in what came off--to me at least--as a hostile, closed off posture, while Obama was open and warm. He often turned and looked over at McCain, who refused to ever look directly at Obama.

Both candidates refused to take advantage of the nation's economic woes, and did not differ on much of substance, and, in fact, agreed that greed and deregulation that brought us to this lamentable state of affairs.

It was close to a stalemate...I'd give McCain a few more points for getting in unanswered jabs, and I'd give Obama points for showing grace an charm under fire. Obama absolutely looked Presidential, and I suspect that, even if you'd score this as a tie, Obama clearly showed he would be every bit--if not more--Presidential than John McCain. Following this debate, the populace now understands that Barack Obama could clearly hold his own with the likes of Putin, Chavez, or any foreign leader. This raises the stakes on the next debate. . .right through the roof!




Joe Biden made the rounds post-debate of numerous talk shows. Sarah Palin was, as is often the case, absent, under wraps, and silent. Their turn comes this upcoming week.
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