Trumpmania drowning out the other candidates
Former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards once said memorably, “The only way I can lose is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
It seems unlikely either circumstance could slow down the juggernaut that is Donald Trump, even a little bit.
Trump keeps making outrageous and offensive statements. The Conventional Wisdom keeps saying that, at last, The Donald has gone way too far and is toast.
Unlike most candidates and mere mortals, Trump, rather than running away from his latest calumny, embraces it — “double down” hardly begins to describe the ferocity of his counterattacks. And he continues to dominate the polls and the conversation, much to the consternation of his legions of critics and the rest of the crowded field for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
On Monday, astonishingly, Trump’s blood feud with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly was still going strong for a fifth consecutive day. Kelly’s tough questioning of the bombastic billionaire during last Thursday night’s debate clearly got under his skin, and he has been launching retaliatory salvos ever since.
That’s what he was doing during an appearance Monday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. There have been many calls for Trump to apologize for his comments during a CNN interview on Friday night when he criticized Kelly for her aggressive questioning, saying, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.” Understandably, many took that as a reference to Kelly’s menstrual cycle, and were rightfully appalled.
But anyone expecting Trump to apologize — for anything — really hasn’t been paying attention. He hasn’t apologized for his remarks about Mexico sending us rapists and questioning whether Sen. John McCain was really a hero. And even a comment that seemed a new low, even for Trump, saw no change of behavior.
And so Trump, who has said he had meant to say Kelly’s nose or ears, declared, “She should really be apologizing to me, you want to know the truth. And other candidates have said that.”
Trump continued his efforts to paint himself a victim of those mean, vicious Fox journalists, who had the temerity to ask him — and other candidates — tough questions. He told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on the Today show Monday that Kelly had “asked me a question. It was an inappropriate question. It was a ridiculous question. Even the other candidates came up to me and said that that was absolutely out of line.” Which is completely ludicrous.
Kelly called Trump to account for the insulting, demeaning terms he has used to describe women he doesn’t like — “fat pigs,” dogs,” etc. — a totally appropriate question for someone who wants to be president of the United States, including the women who happen to live there.
Trump also was still whining about a question from another of the Fox moderators, Bret Baier, who asked the candidates whether they would vow to support the party’s ultimate nominee. What could be a more legitimate query?
Trump, the only one of the 10 debaters who declined to do so, complained that the question was “inappropriate” and “aimed at me.” As for the first, no way. As for the second, no kidding — and with good reason.
In fact, all three Fox moderators — Chris Wallace was the third — performed well in the widely watched first debate.
The extent to which Trump is dominating coverage of the campaign is no doubt vexing. It’s easy to lambaste the media for paying so much attention to a candidacy that seems so fundamentally unserious, that seems more about the not unsubstantial Trump ego writ very, very large than about the future of the free world. But when he is — by far — the leader in the polls, whatever their shortcomings, when he is so gifted at making it all about him, I’m not sure how you ignore him.
As Donald Rumsfeld might say, you cover the campaign you have, not the one you want.
But that does present a substantial problem: The preoccupation, not to say obsession, with Trump makes it hard for anyone else to be heard.
Whatever you think of their politics, the GOP has an impressive array of talented, experienced candidates.
As one of them, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, told Fox News Monday, Trumpnado is drowning out “just about everyone else out there.” Hopefully that won’t be the case forever. But I wouldn’t bet heavily on a big change anytime soon.