Presumptuous Politics : Jul 22, 2016

Friday, July 22, 2016

Hillary Cartoons

Trump speaks to America’s ‘forgotten men and women’ in big, bold speech

A postscript to the 2016 Republican National Convention: just how is the wide of a gulf between a Fourth Estate that nitpicked and nunchucked the Republicans’ every move in Cleveland and a viewing audience drawn to this convention’s more forthright rhetoric?
That includes Donald Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday night.
Critics of the Republican presidential nominee wasted no time relegating it to history’s dustbin.
But here’s what they missed (and, no, I’m not a Trump supporter): for a guy who calls Manhattan and Palm Beach home Trump sounded an awful lot like a bridge-and-tunnel guy in touch with working-class concerns.
Which is precisely what he set out do, in Thursday prime time.
Here’s one way to assess Trump’s big speech: how it stacks up against four previous GOP nominees.
That includes:
Barry Goldwater, 1964. Like Trump, Goldwater faced a divided party – moderate Republicans who saw the GOP as hijacked by the far right.
Read the famous “extremism in the defense of liberty” speech and it’s clear: Goldwater was as much interested in defining the GOP as he was championing freedom.
“Republican”, or some variation of the word, came up 34 times in a 40-minute address.
In Ohio, land of the late Robert Taft, Trump didn’t try to position himself as the new “Mr. Republican”. He mentioned the word twice in the opening moments of his speech and only once long after that.
For those of you keeping score at home, there also was zero mention of “conservative” or “Ted Cruz”.
This speech wasn’t about establishing an ideological beachhead within the Republican Party, so let’s move on to…
George H.W. Bush, 1988. If Goldwater was about the movement; Bush 41’s speech was all about a man with a purpose – a former torpedo bomber pilot who, in his words, “sees life in terms of missions – missions defined and missions completed”.
Trump’s speech took a similar flight path: “I have had a truly great life in business,” he declared. “But now, my sole and exclusive missions is to go to work for our country – to go to work for you. It’s time to deliver for the American people.”
Ironic, given Trump’s toxic relationship with Jeb, there was one other Bush influence in Trump’s speech: branding.
George W. Bush, 2000. Befitting the first Republican president of the Information Age, Bush 43’s speech was an attempt at recast the GOP in the candidate’s more compassionate image.
In Bush’s words: “Everyone, from immigrant to entrepreneur, has an equal claim on this country's promise.” Preceded by: “I want to change the tone of Washington to one of civility and respect.”
Trump tried the same in Cleveland – not seeking a group hug (though he did utter “compassionate” once, with regard to immigration laws), but instead casting himself as a needed combatant on the side of “the American people”. Trump’s villains: “big business”, “special interests”, “elite media” and “major donors”, he said, all backing Hillary Clinton to preserve an economic and political system, in his words, “rigged to their benefit”.
Trump made it clear there will be a new sheriff in town: “I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country”.
And in case you missed it the first time, a few moments later: “In this race for the White House, I am the law-and-order candidate”.
In this regard, what we discovered at a national convention with little to show in the way of bloodlines – no Bushes, no Mitt Romney, no John McCain, and little mention of Ronald Reagan – is Trump having Republican ancestry…
Richard Nixon, 1968. Befitting a nominee with a troubled soul but the most accurate of political compasses, Nixon’s speech was spot-on for a nation wracked with domestic and foreign turmoil.
Nearly a half-century ago, Nixon singled out “forgotten Americans” chafed by economic hardship, racial tension, disrespect of the law, cultural decay and the nation’s inability to wage war effectively.
And Trump?
“Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned.”
“I have visited the laid-off factory workers,” he continued, “and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals.”
“These are the forgotten men and women of our
country. People who work hard but no longer have a
voice.”
“I am your voice.”
Trump echoed Nixon foreign policy, making Clinton/Obama his Humphrey/Johnson for leading the nation on a host of foreign policy follies -- ISIS, Egypt, Libya and a host of overseas follies.
There was no declaration that Clinton has blood on her hands, as on Monday night, but there was this brutal summation: “This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death,
destruction, terrorism and weakness.”
Finally, the similarity between Nixon and Trump’s closing passages.
Nixon: “The time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountain so that we may see the glory of the dawn – a new day for America, and a new dawn for peace and freedom in the world.”
Trump: “History is watching us now. It’s waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong.”
Trump didn’t plagiarize Nixon’s remarks, but one thing he did lift: bumper stickers. Trump-Pence and Nixon-Agnew are all five-letter names.
One last observation: we’ve never had an election like this in modern times – two nominees so engrained in the nation’s mindset, both deeply unpopular.
It begs the question of a post-convention “bounce” – since 1968, all non-incumbent presidential winners have picked up at least 4 points in the immediate aftermath of their acceptance speeches.
Mitt Romney didn’t get much of one in Tampa, back in 2012. I’ll wager Trump does. Why? The speech connected. Replace Trump with a less controversial figure and it really connects in a time when voters are down on individuals and institutions.
But bounces can be fleeting. If one considers that every presidential gets four bites out of the apple – the day they announce, the day they clinch the nomination, the night they accept it at the national convention, and finally the three fall debates.
This may prove to be an election with the winner determined by what those debates yield, and what events overtake the candidates closer to Election Day – violence at home, unrest overseas.
The national conventions are important milestones, but not necessarily crucial to the cause.
And the blunt talk, mini-controversies and odd political-celebrity hybrid that is the Trump show?
It’s over, in Cleveland.
With another 15 weeks to play out.

Trump turns serious, rolling the dice on a policy-packed speech

CLEVELAND – Donald Trump wasted no time in making a lofty promise at the Republican convention:
"The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon--and I mean very soon--come to an end," and the day he is sworn in, "safety will be restored."
He cannot keep that promise, of course, but it's not meant to be taken literally. Like so much in the Trump persona and candidacy, he promises greatness, details be damned, and his supporters respond to the aspirational bluntness.
If I had to pick a signature line in the oration that roused the crowd here in Cleveland, it would be this, about "people who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice."
It was an attempt to fuse his loud, rough-edged and sometimes divisive voice with the needs of ordinary folks.
What seemed so ludicrous to so many a year ago, that this bombastic billionaire and New York street fighter would be accepting the Republican nomination, also created for him a special challenge. A man who loves to riff and joke and feed off the energy of crowds, he was reading the ultimate scripted speech. There was little levity and only a few personal lines, about his parents and late brother. Trump was all business, and his mission was to persuade wavering voters that he has the depth and discipline to run the country.
In short, to pass the commander-in-chief test.
Trump larded the address with attacks on Hillary Clinton, calling her a "puppet" of big donors and ripping her record on such issues as trade. He denounced President Obama for "irresponsible rhetoric."
He hit his marks on such signature topics as immigration and terrorism.
But Trump also sounded notes that are muted for many Republicans. He spoke of nearly four in 10 African-American children living in poverty, and 43 million people on food stamps. He mentioned Ferguson.
And Trump even made a pitch to sway backers of Bernie Sanders, painting him as another victim of a rigged system--a Republican appealing to followers of a self-proclaimed socialist.
He was reading the ultimate scripted speech, and a very long one at that.
For Trump to win with an electoral map tilted against the GOP, he has to peel off enough Democratic and independent voters.
Given his high negatives, Trump's speech was about more than facts and figures. It was about earning trust, despite his lack of political experience.
As the pundits pick apart the speech and replay the sound bites, he may or may not get a bump in the polls. But this was the businessman's best shot, with his biggest audience, to close a deal that at the moment remains in doubt.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Ivanka Trump tells GOP convention her father will fight for working people

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, cast her father as a "fighter" for working people, particularly working women, in her remarks to the Republican National Convention Thursday night.
Ivanka, a senior executive in her father's business, the Trump Organization, noted that the company has more female than male executives.
Then, matching a campaign promise by presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, she vowed her father would "fight for equal pay for equal work and I will fight for this too, right alongside him."
Ivanka, Trump's older daughter and the last of four Trump children to speak at the convention, sought to underscore her father's personal warmth beneath the public persona. She recalled playing with "Legos and erector sets" in her father's office, as well as his efforts to help ordinary people suffering from hardship.
"He would talk to them and then draw on his extensive network to find them a job or get them a break," she said. "And they would leave his office, as people often do after being with Donald Trump, feeling that life could be great again."
Ivanka is expected to be a key surrogate for her father in the general election campaign, particularly as he tries to make up ground against Clinton among women. A Fox News poll taken last month showed Clinton leading Trump by 19 points, 51 percent to 32 percent, among women

Trump claims GOP nomination, tells struggling Americans 'I am your voice'

CLEVELAND – Just over a year after Donald J. Trump descended his iconic escalator in Manhattan to announce he was joining a packed field of political veterans seeking the Republican nomination for president, the New York billionaire completed an astonishing and historic political ascent Thursday night in Cleveland, officially claiming his party’s nomination — and declaring to struggling Americans, “I am your voice.”
Trump electrified the convention crowd on closing night, with chants of “U.S.A.” frequently breaking out as the nominee vowed to put “America first.” He used the speech to align his campaign squarely on the side of struggling American workers of all political stripes, as he moved to broaden his appeal beyond the Republican base that largely decided the primaries.
“Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned. … These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice,” Trump said. “I am your voice.”
And he delivered a tough law-and-order message throughout, declaring from the convention floor in Cleveland, “Safety will be restored” under a Trump presidency.
“America will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced,” Trump vowed.
He described the nation at a “moment of crisis,” citing terror attacks, violence against police and “chaos in our communities” including rising inner-city crime. “I will restore law and order to our country,” he said, while vowing to crack down on illegal immigration.
Trump’s highly anticipated speech -- at 75 minutes, the longest convention acceptance address since 1972‎ -- amounts to his closing argument before Clinton and the Democrats get their turn starting Monday in Philadelphia. As much as Republican leaders bashed the presumptive Democratic nominee in Cleveland, Democrats are likely to be just as tough on the Republicans at their convention.
The next big step for Clinton, though, will be to name her running mate, a decision that could come as early as Friday.
But before the attention turns to Clinton, Trump got in his final shots.
The businessman closed his address by turning rival Clinton’s “I’m with her” campaign slogan on its head.
“I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads, I’m with you,” Trump said.
He blasted Clinton’s foreign policy record as secretary of state – citing the bloody tumult in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya – saying her legacy is “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness” and a “change in leadership” is needed.
“Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy,” he said.
And defending his aversion to political correctness, he said for anyone who wants to hear “the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week -- go there. But here, at our convention, there will be no lies.”
Trump also cycled through his campaign promises, including the controversial calls to build a southern border wall and “immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.”
He added, “We don’t want them in our country.”
Trump vowed as well to protect LGBTQ citizens from terrorism like the Orlando club shooting. In a moment that allowed him to show his gay-rights support, Trump thanked the crowd for cheering that line: “It is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said.”
The speech caps a dramatic convention week marked by powerful displays of party unity but also tensions, flaring most recently when Ted Cruz withheld his endorsement Wednesday night.
The omission prompted boos from pro-Trump delegates, and the unrest continued into Thursday, when the Texas senator defended his decision before an audience of Texas delegates clearly divided over Cruz’s handling of the convention speech.
At the same time, Trump’s newly anointed running mate Mike Pence deftly set the stage for Trump’s big night, effectively making the conservative case for the billionaire businessman in his own nomination acceptance speech on Wednesday. The choice of Pence – a classic conservative with Midwestern roots – helped bring various factions of the party together even before the convention began.
Despite the Cruz commotion, top party leaders from House Speaker Paul Ryan to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus worked to heal divisions in the party over the course of the Cleveland coming-together.
“He’s brought millions of new voters to our party because he’s listening to Americans” anxious about the state of the country, Priebus said. “With Donald Trump and Mike Pence, America’s ready for a comeback after almost a decade of Clinton-Obama failures.”
Priebus claimed Republicans are the party with new ideas, while Democrats are the “same party doing the same old thing,” trotting out the “same old candidate” next week.
“Let’s stay united as Republicans,” Priebus said.
Members of Trump’s family also spent the week giving voters a glimpse into the tycoon’s more personal side, with daughter Ivanka introducing her father Thursday night. Appealing to women, she praised the businessman’s record supporting female employees at his organization. And touting her dad as a tireless fighter who can bring his work ethic and aptitude to the nation’s highest office, Ivanka asked all voters to put their faith in him.
“For more than a year, Donald Trump has been the people’s champion, and tonight he is the people’s nominee,” she said. “… When my father says he’ll make America great again, he will deliver.”