Saving the Donald from himself...
...Is a doomed mission, obviously. Here's a look into the matter, as his campaign seems to be unraveling pretty fast at this point:
Inside the Failing Mission to Tame Donald Trump’s Tongue
I think there are two conclusions sticking out. One, Trump is a one-trick pony. He's got just one mode he feels comfortable in, and is therefore afraid of moving away from it. He's unhappy and uncomfortable whenever compelled to do so. And two, even when he understands the need to change the mode for a while, and does agree to change it (like when he tried to make a coherent speech on fiscal policy, finally reading some text from a teleprompter, cleverly written by some of his campaign managers), he just can't seem to be able to do it for much longer than a few minutes.
And when he inevitably shits over it all, and even when some of his allies attempt to sweep the shit for him on his behalf, he again doubles down on his own BS. Like that bit where a conservative TV pundit asked him if he didn't mean Obama had created the conditions for ISIS to thrive, rather than literally meaning Obama was the founder of ISIS - and Trump said that no, he did mean Obama was the actual founder of ISIS. And then he said he had been sarcastic all the while. But then he said he hadn't been "entirely" sarcastic. And so on and so forth. You get my drift.
In any case, all this schizophrenic back-and-forth doesn't sound like good qualities for a president. Basically, Trump can't seem to break from that vicious cycle of his. Now, granted, it might have helped him in the GOP primaries, as he was prominently sticking out amidst a pack of mediocre Mr Nobodies (and one Mrs). But it's now beginning to backfire very badly on him, now that he'll be needing to reach out to a wider array of segments of the electorate, and possibly tap into groups he doesn't necessarily feel comfortably with. Otherwise he's in for quite a landslide defeat - and the entire party along with him.
His conspiracy BS has started hurting him very badly at this point. The thing is, some liberal analysts have expressed fear that if he abruptly moves away from his usual conspiracy schtick and back to his populist message, he could sweep the rust belt pretty darn good - a formerly democratic stronghold that has been devastated by NAFTA and other outsourcing, and is ripe for the populist taking. That could easily happen, but it would depend on Trump leaving his conspiracy theory nonsense behind and focusing on issues, even if in a populist way.
In a nutshell, both sides' voters are so deeply dug-in, as bad a candidate as Hillary may be, and with all the negative stuff constantly surrounding her, a more sane and sensible Trump would be pretty competitive. I'm not sure if he realizes that and is playing an elaborate game right now - or he's just as stupid as a stump.
Whatever the case, right now the GOP establishment must be looking at this win that should be supposed to be theirs, and saying to themselves, "What the hell have we done to deserve this!?" And their opponents might be having a wee Schadenfreude moment out there, without even realizing they could've been in the same or a similar situation, had this monster opted for running at their side.
Inside the Failing Mission to Tame Donald Trump’s Tongue
I think there are two conclusions sticking out. One, Trump is a one-trick pony. He's got just one mode he feels comfortable in, and is therefore afraid of moving away from it. He's unhappy and uncomfortable whenever compelled to do so. And two, even when he understands the need to change the mode for a while, and does agree to change it (like when he tried to make a coherent speech on fiscal policy, finally reading some text from a teleprompter, cleverly written by some of his campaign managers), he just can't seem to be able to do it for much longer than a few minutes.
And when he inevitably shits over it all, and even when some of his allies attempt to sweep the shit for him on his behalf, he again doubles down on his own BS. Like that bit where a conservative TV pundit asked him if he didn't mean Obama had created the conditions for ISIS to thrive, rather than literally meaning Obama was the founder of ISIS - and Trump said that no, he did mean Obama was the actual founder of ISIS. And then he said he had been sarcastic all the while. But then he said he hadn't been "entirely" sarcastic. And so on and so forth. You get my drift.
In any case, all this schizophrenic back-and-forth doesn't sound like good qualities for a president. Basically, Trump can't seem to break from that vicious cycle of his. Now, granted, it might have helped him in the GOP primaries, as he was prominently sticking out amidst a pack of mediocre Mr Nobodies (and one Mrs). But it's now beginning to backfire very badly on him, now that he'll be needing to reach out to a wider array of segments of the electorate, and possibly tap into groups he doesn't necessarily feel comfortably with. Otherwise he's in for quite a landslide defeat - and the entire party along with him.
His conspiracy BS has started hurting him very badly at this point. The thing is, some liberal analysts have expressed fear that if he abruptly moves away from his usual conspiracy schtick and back to his populist message, he could sweep the rust belt pretty darn good - a formerly democratic stronghold that has been devastated by NAFTA and other outsourcing, and is ripe for the populist taking. That could easily happen, but it would depend on Trump leaving his conspiracy theory nonsense behind and focusing on issues, even if in a populist way.
In a nutshell, both sides' voters are so deeply dug-in, as bad a candidate as Hillary may be, and with all the negative stuff constantly surrounding her, a more sane and sensible Trump would be pretty competitive. I'm not sure if he realizes that and is playing an elaborate game right now - or he's just as stupid as a stump.
Whatever the case, right now the GOP establishment must be looking at this win that should be supposed to be theirs, and saying to themselves, "What the hell have we done to deserve this!?" And their opponents might be having a wee Schadenfreude moment out there, without even realizing they could've been in the same or a similar situation, had this monster opted for running at their side.