In another bravura performance of Peak Assholery, Donald Trump slammed John McCain for getting himself captured in Vietnam. The Republican establishment and most of the other candidates — Ted Cruz being the exception — ran to the microphones to condemn him.
Mr. Trump’s candidacy probably reached an inflection point on Saturday after he essentially criticized John McCain for being captured during the Vietnam War. Republican campaigns and elites quickly moved to condemn his comments — a shift that will probably mark the moment when Trump’s candidacy went from boom to bust.
His support will erode as the tone of coverage shifts from publicizing his anti-establishment and anti-immigration views, which have some resonance in the party, to reflecting the chorus of Republican criticism of his most outrageous comments and the more liberal elements of his record.
Yes, that’s probably what will happen. But I’m not certain that’s what will happen. Because the section of the Republican base supporting Trump wrote off McCain as a RINO a long time ago and probably don’t care what Trump says about him. To verify this I went to Jim Hoft’s site Gateway Pundit, and sure enough, the mouth breathers were cheering Trump for insulting McCain. Representative comments:
It seems lately the more Trump opens his mouth, the more truth emerges. Refreshing in the stale crypt of RINO pablum.
Trump is right, McCain is a do nothing Progressive yes man. He works for the money men.
Trump is right – all of McCain’s actions have been actions of Treason and Rebellion and of Dishonorable Conduct, it is a deep Wrong to our nation that he was not tired when he returned from Vietnam. It is a Deep, Incredible Wrong that he was ever elected to the office of a Public Servant.He committed strings of Treason while in Office and only ONE of them is the Treason of his co-authoring and promoting SHAMNESTY, both in America AGAINST OUR CONSTITUTION and in Mexico, Central and South America, and for all practical purposes, WORLD WIDE…. FLOODING OUR NATION TO DEATH. There is no longer an Punishment for McCain’s Felonies that is too severe so that anyone has GROUNDS to say, “That is too harsh.” Anyone who does say it has REFUSED to look at what McCain has done to others, the MILLIONS dead due to his DIRECT ACTIONS with willful knowledge aforethought. …
That last one goes on and on and was written by a woman. Be afraid.
Of course, it’s also not clear exactly who the Trump Supporter is. Cohn continues,
His support does not follow ideological lines, as Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight has observed. It is not even clear that he has more support among immigration hard-liners than other Republicans. A Politico article titled “The Mystery of the Trump Coalition†struggled to identify which issues or demographics drove support for Mr. Trump. There might not be any.
Or, it might be that the assholery is what’s driving the support. He is the asshole’s candidate.
The Republican establishment has the vapors today over Trump’s comments about McCain. They didn’t mind so much when he was spewing demented hate speech against entire population demographics, but insulting another Republican will not stand. However, I suspect Trump is riding a wave that Republicans created but which got away from them some time back.
The GOP establishment ought to be grateful to The Donald, I say. He’s making the rest of their candidates seem almost human.
Uncle Donald,
How did YOU manage to avoid the draft?!?!?!
What a low-life!
I’m no fan of John McCain, but at least he served!
But, the conservatives mocked John Kerry’s service, so this is nothing new!
Trump, and the people who like him, are lower than amoeba poop in the Marianas Trench!!!!!
the GOP as an organizations is mostly gone, broken up into different profit centers. they are still trying to divide up the “spoils”…really, all that is left of the GOP is the stench of the rotting “republican party corpse”…
I also am not a big fan of McCain and I don’t think being captured automatically qualifies for heroship. However, I do believe he was tortured and refused an offer to be released. That takes guts, IMO.
I have a thought about Trump. If he is not serious about being president and I don’t think he is, perhaps he is doing and saying all this stuff to sabotage his campaign. Then he can do his usual and blame everyone else for not accepting the truth. As for his supporters, even Satan has supporters.
Do amoebas really poop?
Trump was at first criticizing McCain fairly on some minor inside GOP nonsense. He spoke off the cuff after being baited by Luntz repeating “war hero” after every sentence in a transparent troll move, and Trump took the bait. Fergawdsakes, McCain has spent the last 40 years being a reprehensible human being in almost every respect knowing that “War Hero” will get him off every time. It’s all he’s had ever since Admiral Daddy McCain died and could no longer cover his dumb ass. Don’t doubt for a minute that anyone who has ever had to deal with Ace Pilot McCain for any appreciable length of time hasn’t said or thought the same thing as Trump. To sink Trump in this primary, they should probably troll him to kick a different puppy; one that the base has fucks to give about.
Actually, McCain got the nickname “Hanoi Songbird” for spilling to his captors. The first was as soon as he was captured (according to his autobiography). He was shot down because he refused to follow standing orders about what to do when confronted with anti-aircraft fire. Not following standing orders is also how he managed to crash two jets and causing an international incident (crashing one was ordinarily grounds for being permanently grounded) and how he started the USS Forrestal disaster. His refusal to take the release offer was because, like all such offers, he’d have to issue a formal statement that he’d talked. And that would have killed both of his twin dreams (which acquaintances say he talked about incessantly from the earliest days of his career) of being promoted to Admiral (just like his father and grandfather had) and/or being elected president.
And that refusal was actually the high point, morally, of McCain’s life.
McCain is not, and apparently never was, a decent person. Which is why Trump attacked him; you always save your greatest hate for those people most like you.
You do have to wonder if Trump is trying to get out of the corner he’s gotten himself into. Picking up the usual publicity with “a presidential run” is now a time-honored tradition among rightwingers, but front of the pack and the frightening possibility of actually having to really run is a bad idea for Trump. And simply quitting would be bad publicity. But that’s assuming he’s actually smart enough to think that up. It could be he is, but likely he isn’t. Perhaps more likely he’ll just go along hoping to find some outrage that will “make” it “a moral imperative” that he quit.
Just thought maybe the “moral outrage” of the rest of the GOP leadership “not respecting his free speech” could be what’s he’s trying with this.
I did some commentary analysis myself on this. The linked article takes three conservative outlets and compares positive, weak positive, neutral, weak negative, and strong negative comments about Trump’s gaffe–with graphs.
http://politicalomnivore.blogspot.com/2015/07/trump-mega-gaffe.html
I don’t think this will kill him–not by itself. I agree with The Upshot that it may create a window of opportunity to take him down with concentrated, continuous action–but I’m just not certain.
Can I donate to The Donald’s campaign ? I was crushed when Newt dropped out so early last time, leaving Ro-money, who was simply pathetic, and didn’t have, in my view, Newt’s comedic potential.
As for McCain, how much can you say about a guy who was to lazy to vet his Veep running mate? As a Senator, he is certainly a liability to Arizona and the United States– less useful than an empty chair (my state, NC, would DEARLY love two empty chairs for us in the Senate)–but, at least he is a valuable resource on foreign policy– whatever he suggests, one should do the opposite.
They all have to band together to come against Trump.. None of them can afford to get into a pissing match with the Donald without the security of numbers. If any one of the GOP hopefuls get targeted for special attention from the Donald they won’t come away from the experience with anything positive added to their image. They’ll be bloodied by a highly visible public recounting of all their shortcomings and failures. The Donald has made it clear he doesn’t like losers..
He’s a loose cannon..and nobody in the GOP know what kind of damage he can inflict. He’s a force to be reckoned with.
Go Donald!…The truth goes marching on.
It’s hard to predict what will happen with Trump as he always doubles down and doesn’t apologize – which of course are traits admired by Republicans, so the various candidates are a bit delusional if they really think he’ll apologize.
I think Trump figures a scorched earth (and sea, and sky, and everything else) campaign favors him – and it’s the only kind he knows how to run. Frankly, he’s probably right about it favoring him as most of the other candidates aren’t ready for it – except Cruz.
I can see a Cruz-Trump teamup coming out of this. No matter how much damage they do, if they keep ripping into other candidates and never apologizing, their standing will be higher with some of the population who likes an a-hole. That’s enough to make them powerbrokers or launch other careers . . .
I also think Trump wouldn’t go all in unless he thinks he can get something out of it. The question is, what?
Donald is certainly not afraid to touch the third rail in politics.
I think it’s great that The Donald is taking a shot at McCain. McCain’s war hero cow has been milked dry..That’s almost 50 years ago. Not that he shouldn’t be respected for his service or sacrifice, but it doesn’t give him and shouldn’t give him an elevated status as a political figure.
Again it’s almost 50 years ago..50 years ago I was such a hunk that any women would be lucky to find herself hanging on my arm. But a lot has transpired in 50 years and that claim doesn’t seem to have the same truth as it does now. Get my point?
Swami: I’m sure you’re still handsome but you do need a new hairdo.
“But, the conservatives mocked John Kerry’s service, so this is nothing new!”
@Cund Gulag: Wouldn’t it be delicious irony if the GOP wingnut base started wearing purple bandaids in support of Trump?
Go for the Chrome dome, Swami.
I don’t know if Trump is an evil clown or insane. I have to watch this show play for a while.
Pass the popcorn.
@zoomar.
YEAH!
LOL!!!
The real question is: “Can Trump bring down the GOP?”
There is no more GOP, Dan!
Just a lot of conservative free-agent’s spewing hate, fear, and bigotry, hoping to land an uber-wealthy Sugar Daddy!
Or, the entire package in one – a self-financing newly conservative loon:
Dumb-‘n-old Chump!
Let the Republicans have to try to explain away his antics!
He is their creature…
I hear that McCain has put on the cloak of humility and said that he is no war hero. It is all veterans that The Donald has disparaged. How noble of McCain to follow in the footsteps of Christ and play the fool on the hill. Nothing like a little spiritual jiu jitsu,huh?
Yo no soy digno! 🙂
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/21/iowa-paper-trump-a-feckless-blowhard-who-should-end-presidential-campaign/