Former President Donald Trump, riding high after one of the best days of his campaign, used a rally in South Carolina on Saturday to attack rival Nikki Haley in her home state — and to mock the absence of her husband, who is deployed overseas.
One of these days I’m still going to figure out how a 340 million people country backed itself into having to choose between a well-mannered great-grandfather whose mind keeps taking him to 1990 and a completely demented great-fascist-granduncle to lead the country. (In case you are American, and have to pick, the great-gramps that currently lives in the White House is the choice that still gives you another choice in 4 years)
I don’t think that he’s an asshole (well, okay, I mean, I don’t think that that is why he’s doing this). He did this sort of thing last time around too. I think that it’s a pretty-intentionally-planned tactic by his campaign.
I think that Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator who intensely dislikes Trump, was the first I saw to summarize it shortly after Trump won the 2016 election. He called it “misdirection”.
So, let’s say that you want to control the press, something that would be really useful in an election. You can’t just tell them “talk about X, and don’t talk about Y”, because they’re going to do whatever they want.
So what you do is say something so outrageous on a particular point that they cannot help but talk about that particular, distracting item. The press jumps on it. The result is that they’re talking about (a) you and (b) what you want them to talk about. Now, the downside is that it tends to be negative, but that’s not necessarily the end of the world. In particular, you’re controlling the media cycle and steering them away from topics that you don’t want them to talk about.
There are a lot of things that the press might be talking about right now. Trump’s potential criminal convictions, I don’t know. Some of those are things that the Trump campaign does not want them talking about. But they aren’t talking about those. Instead, they’re spending time talking about how Trump was politically incorrect in talking about a candidate’s husband, which isn’t something that people who might vote for Trump are actually all that upset about, and that his campaign will have planned around dealing with.
Haley’s husband is an Army Colonel currently deployed to Djibout. Trump knows this. He’s just an asshole.
Trump thinks Haley is Pelosi. I’m not sure he knows what fucking year it is anymore.
Of course, none of that takes away from the very real and key fact that the is an asshole…
One of these days I’m still going to figure out how a 340 million people country backed itself into having to choose between a well-mannered great-grandfather whose mind keeps taking him to 1990 and a completely demented great-fascist-granduncle to lead the country. (In case you are American, and have to pick, the great-gramps that currently lives in the White House is the choice that still gives you another choice in 4 years)
If he knew that, he’s just stupid to point that out. That just raises her profile among Republicans.
I think you underestimate that power of propaganda.
Yeah, I guess none of his newsmax or whatever watching followers would ever hear about that.
I don’t think that he’s an asshole (well, okay, I mean, I don’t think that that is why he’s doing this). He did this sort of thing last time around too. I think that it’s a pretty-intentionally-planned tactic by his campaign.
I think that Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator who intensely dislikes Trump, was the first I saw to summarize it shortly after Trump won the 2016 election. He called it “misdirection”.
So, let’s say that you want to control the press, something that would be really useful in an election. You can’t just tell them “talk about X, and don’t talk about Y”, because they’re going to do whatever they want.
So what you do is say something so outrageous on a particular point that they cannot help but talk about that particular, distracting item. The press jumps on it. The result is that they’re talking about (a) you and (b) what you want them to talk about. Now, the downside is that it tends to be negative, but that’s not necessarily the end of the world. In particular, you’re controlling the media cycle and steering them away from topics that you don’t want them to talk about.
There are a lot of things that the press might be talking about right now. Trump’s potential criminal convictions, I don’t know. Some of those are things that the Trump campaign does not want them talking about. But they aren’t talking about those. Instead, they’re spending time talking about how Trump was politically incorrect in talking about a candidate’s husband, which isn’t something that people who might vote for Trump are actually all that upset about, and that his campaign will have planned around dealing with.