Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 22

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Captain_Swoop said:
remember

Joe Biden went out into the streets and talked to the people.

Donald Trump went out into the streets and tear gassed the people.
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But Joe Biden is just as bad because someone he makes flubs.

Remember kids not 100% perfectly flawless is the exact same as not trying at all.
 
Trump Tweets

NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Don’t make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!!
 
It's so hard to see how "the other side" will react to something, but I have to think his Bible photo-op has to be the worst photo-op in my memory. It exceeds "the salute" and the "Dukakis drives a tank" moment. In each of those cases, I watched live as it happened and I knew that I would be seeing them in Republican campaign commercials.

I think we'll be seeing that Bible in Democratic campaign commercials. At least, I strongly suspect we will.

However, it's so hard to tell how Trump's actions play to the general public, and most importantly to swing voters, i.e. in this case people who are not overly fond of Trump, but might vote for him because they also don't like Democrats. I think that his antics yesterday would leave a bad taste in the mouth of everyone who isn't a hard core MAGA person.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

SILENT MAJORITY!
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As noted in another thread, I just watched Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War".

It's stunning to hear someone deliberately aping Richard Nixon. Has "Fake News" displaced the old memes, or will Trump soon refer to "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism?" (I suppose that should be Pence, to keep the analogy better.)

I suppose the "Nabobs" quote has too many syllables, so "Fake News" will have to do.

ETA: But....it does scare me. Nixon won, twice, and that documentary emphasized that in polling data, the tough stance was popular. After Kent State, polls showed support for the National Guard who fired on the student protestors.
 
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Trump isn't man enough to walk 10 steps behind Nixon carry the poop bags while Nixon walked Checkers the Cocker Spaniel around the White House lawn.

And Nixon was a horrible monster.
 
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JoeMorgue said:
Trump isn't man enough to walk 10 steps behind Nixon carry the poop bags while Nixon walked Checkers the Cocker Spaniel around the White House lawn.

And Nixon was a horrible monster.
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And, I don't think Trump can pull it off. I think he will just appear to be an oaf, as he did yesterday. However, I can't help but remind myself that there were at least six times in 2015-2016 when I decided that his latest move was the end of his campaign.
 
carlitos said:
He never even explained what he was doing, just took photos. Incompetent.

Imagine a competent communicator staging this photo op. They pre arrange for the pastor to be in on it, write a couple of words, maybe choose a specific bible with some history to it. Make the walk, cue the camera and mikes and ...go to potus:

“Two nights ago, looters tried to desecrate this church, sometimes called the church of presidents. We are here tonight to say “no more,” to ask that all protestors please return to peaceful protests, Yada yada - (quote bible verse) We walked here tonight along the same path as Adams, Lincoln and Kennedy ... and included in our midst in this symbolic walk of faith is the bishop of this church ... bishop talks, quotes mlk ... so and so from xyz congregation that was looted joins them, asks looters to please stop destroying churches and such, etc

Back to Trump:

... so as we pick up the pieces let’s remember that America is stronger together and we will get through this challenge like we always have.

Thank you and god bless America. “
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Yes. Even an adequate communicator could have done something like that. Of course that route requires (1) being quiet while someone else is talking (2) appearing to pay attention to someone else talking and (3) appearing to agree with what someone else is saying.

You might as well ask him to flap his arms and fly through the air. Or do a push-up.
 
I saw someone remark that he had been very quiet on Twitter while hiding like Hitler in his bunker, apart from the tweet about evil dogs and menacing weapons or whatever it was, which just communicated to me that he was scared ****-less.

Now I wonder if his storming of the church grounds was to communicate a macho strongman image. Lesser dictators, sorry, Presidents, would've cowered in the White House, but I went to church, a burning church, no less, and posed with a Babel! I needed horses and soldiers to protect me and everything!"
 
Resume said:
That picture of him standing there like an imbecile must get used in an attack ad.
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The video is even better. He's just mindlessly shuffling around, trying to figure out how to even hold the bible. And then obviously pausing to make sure the photos get his "good side".

And then he follows it up with about 30 seconds of trying to get his cronies to join him for a photo. Their utter lack of enthusiasm for participating in his Dog&Pony show is glaring. They all just kind of stand there, looking dejected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oRQF68psdY
 
Trump Tweets

New York City put on an 11:00 P.M. CURFEW last night. No wonder they ripped the place apart. Should be 7:00 P.M. CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD. #SAVENYC
 
bonzombiekitty said:
I know the tank one, what was the salute?
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John Kerry opened his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention by saluting and saying "John Kerry, reporting for duty."

I cringed. Worst speech opening ever. For the first minute of the speech I felt like I was just watching vote counts fall.

He would also have yet another embarrassing photo op near the close of the campaign as he went goose hunting. When the other side uses your photo op in their ads, you know it's bad. When you are watching the photo-op, and you know it will end up in the other side's ad, it's worse.

I think yesterday's was even worse than those examples, but I no longer trust my judgement when it comes to what appeals to voters. I didn't think we could get where we are, but we are definitely here.
 
Meadmaker said:
It's easier to understand if you remember that everything is all about Trump.

Over the weekend it was reported that he was shooed into his private bunker at the White House for safety. He thought the press coverage of that made him appear cowardly, so he came out and showed America he wasn't a coward. He wasn't communicating any other message, so none of the rest mattered. And of course those people in Lafayette Park were in the way, so they had to go.

And, as he had done as a young man, he proved that he was very brave when other people were doing the fighting.
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Because nothing says “I am not a coward” like walking down the street with a dozen plainclothes USSS agents while the rooftops are peppered with USSS snipers and a phalanx of riot police are clearing your path.
 
Horatius said:
The video is even better. He's just mindlessly shuffling around, trying to figure out how to even hold the bible. And then obviously pausing to make sure the photos get his "good side".

And then he follows it up with about 30 seconds of trying to get his cronies to join him for a photo. Their utter lack of enthusiasm for participating in his Dog&Pony show is glaring. They all just kind of stand there, looking dejected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oRQF68psdY
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Oh dear, it is bad. It starts with him weighing the bible, then looking at it as if thinking "El Bib? Is this book in Mexican?"
 
Meadmaker said:
It's so hard to see how "the other side" will react to something, but I have to think his Bible photo-op has to be the worst photo-op in my memory. It exceeds "the salute" and the "Dukakis drives a tank" moment. In each of those cases, I watched live as it happened and I knew that I would be seeing them in Republican campaign commercials.

I think we'll be seeing that Bible in Democratic campaign commercials. At least, I strongly suspect we will.

However, it's so hard to tell how Trump's actions play to the general public, and most importantly to swing voters, i.e. in this case people who are not overly fond of Trump, but might vote for him because they also don't like Democrats. I think that his antics yesterday would leave a bad taste in the mouth of everyone who isn't a hard core MAGA person.
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I absolutely agree. It made my mouth drop when I saw the photos! Trump looked so uncomfortable holding the bible; he looked as if he expected it to bust into an avenging beam of flame and incinerate him in a recapitulation of the famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Arc.

It is hard for me, as for you, to understand how a religious person could not look at that footage and realize how Trump's "religious belief" is a complete fraud and snow job. His whole body language says it; how he looks and handles the bible. His pronouncements say it. The fact that he never bothered to speak with the clergy in the church (even had some of them removed to clear the photo op), never prayed, never even had a moment of silent introspection. Not to mention the fact he cynically had peaceful protestors tear gassed and shoved aside just so he could stand there for a few uncomfortable moments hoping an avenging God would not pick him off with a lightening strike.

I am an atheist but I have more respect for the bible and for churches than Trump showed. I may not believe in god but I respect the beliefs of the people who do. Trump? He respects no one and no thing except himself.
 
Resume said:
That picture of him standing there like an imbecile must get used in an attack ad.
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He also looks quite overwhelmed with the whole situation.

With an adult POTUS, like Obama or, heck, even Bush, I would have attributed that to the gravity of the situation. The church basement was on fire, for god's sake.

With Trump, I'm leaning more towards him being in over his head, like handing a five year old a math exam for middle schoolers. I got this impression when the pandemic began, and things haven't exactly gotten easier for him since then. He doesn't just look like he's completely clueless as to what to do with a Bible, since he's holding it up as if it's Mao's Little Red Book, he looks tired, and scared, and, frankly, completely overwhelmed.
 
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