Posted on 02/14/2016 8:23:44 AM PST by smoothsailing
February 14, 2016
by sundance
The headline might sound odd at first, until you realize the debate audience was so over-the-top part of the establishment GOPe, even the willfully blind pundits couldn’t ignore it.
We knew the South Carolina audience was going to be structured by the RNC to be mostly entrenched Brooks Brothers republicans in favor of Marco Rubio. The same general sensibility was evident in the North Charleston FNB debate.
However, what no-one could expect was how the desperation of the donor and cocktail class would cause them to lose any semblance of objectivity and instead launch into a full-throated screaming session on behalf of Senator Rubio, and to a slightly lesser extent Jeb Bush.
The GOP audience reflected one of the long-time republican truisms: the donor class is completely, intentionally and insufferably, disconnected from the general electorate.
The best thing Donald Trump might do next time is pay for an hour of “open bar” just prior to the debate beginning. The RNC can then provide goodie bags of squirt guns, nerf darts, and rubber bands for all audience members.
Don’t fight the bias, enhance it, more Trumpet equals more sunlight. Allow the chattering class to fully embarrass themselves even further. Their behavior helps the insurgency.
Despite the overwhelming odds, and positioned as the dominating fighter he is, Candidate Donald Trump stood on the debate stage and wielded the atomic battle axe against all of their collective antagonisms. Counting the stage crew it was roughly 1,905 to 1.
When the elephant dust settled, Trump emerged – yet again, victorious.
This about sums it up:
I am not a Trump supporter but that was a bloodbath. He tied that whole stage and audience into a package and stamped “Washington Bulls–t†on it. Then he set it on fire and walked off.
Another summary via Twitter:
Tonight, Trump poured gasoline on 30 years of neocon foreign policy thinking and lit the match. It was beautiful.
#GOPDebate
Or this one:
Trump was just Trump tonight — the lone guy fighting all Establishment comers, including that obnoxious audience.
And another:
Some good, lots of bad from the candidates tonight. But nothing worse than the obnoxious audience. That was embarrassing.
When the RNC and GOPe strategy is that brutally obvious, well, the negative outcome they hoped to achieve becomes diminished. Actually, quite the opposite result occurs.
As noted above, the viewing audience begins to stop focusing on the substance, and instead appreciates the strength of the candidate who remains in the arena against overwhelming odds. The intent of the attack backfires. Their goal to create a perception of policy weakness is replaced by an actual appreciation of the candidates fortitude.
Remember Spartacus?
As to substance of the debate itself, the guy getting hit from all directions is the only guy standing up for the middle class.
Not another candidate mentioned anything about saving American Jobs from being outsourced to China or Mexico, and when the moderator tried to turn it into an example of dictatorial tendencies – Trump dismisses the charge by stating he would warn the fleeing company of his intent to work with congress to tariff their products upon import.
Candidate Donald Trump putting his focus on protecting the U.S. worker, regardless of opinion of him. Solidifying his position as their champion. Never before has a candidate railed against the entire system with such intensity, there’s not a doubt in the viewers mind he would not concede an inch in his defense of their economic position.
Again, exactly the blue collar billionaire people are looking for to protect them from the vulture economics of Wall Street. Mr. Trump is 100% Main Street and he means it when he says he will not stop fighting. Openly stating his intent to do so against 1,905:1 odds is a visible representation of the severity of his promise.
Trump is definitely not a politician – He’s us. That’s the message received.
Getting booed by a stacked crowd of special interest groups is a positive for the rest of us… The American people
And when you are supporting a candidate willing to put themselves into such a hostile environment on your behalf, you betcha people will get off their asses and into the voting booth to support him. It’s the least they can do.
Don’t get me wrong, as much as Trump was successful swinging the linguistic battle axe, the circling hyena’s were equally improved in their collective attack. Rubio, Jeb and Cruz each taking turns thrusting forward and snapping their teeth.
Cruz, Rubio and Bush certainly mounted a far more coordinated attack against Trump than in prior debates. However, the rabidity and nastiness, while it might make the auditorium audience giddy with joy, loud shouts and “kill-the-witch” group-think, looks intensely mean-spirited from a TV distance.
Their approach allowed Trump enormously forgiving latitude in how he responded.
Donald Trump as crowd boos him: “I only tell the truth, lobbyists.”
[I]f the audience is pro-Lindsey Graham that REALLY tells you something. Graham was only polling 4% in South Carolina, his home state.
My ears still hurt from the screeches from the debate stage and the whining boos of the donors in the audience.
#GOPDebate
The saddest, well, perhaps the most enlightening part to the entire debate – is how the punditry class, the GOPe machine and the attacking candidates themselves are so not self-aware, they actually think they did a great job.
Their collective response reminds us of that moment just before the voting in New Hampshire when the professional chattering class were interviewed and they said they didn’t know a single Trump supporter.
Donald Trump won New Hampshire by 20+ points (with over 35% of the state vote) in an eight person race; and the state republican party leadership didn’t know a single Trump voter?
The New Hampshire GOP leadership quoted: “they have never encountered a single Trump supporter in their daily lives”.
Think about that carefully.
Let that sink in.
Because that same mindset, those exact same people – albeit 500 miles south, will now tell themselves, their families, their friends and their audience, they don’t know a single South Carolina voter who saw Donald Trump win that debate.
Trump is already positioning himself for the general election. He sees the polls and know he’s got the nomination.
ANY Republican nominee is going to be saddled with the George W. Bush record on the economy (corporate welfare bailouts) and wars (total chaos in Iraq and all over the middle east).
Trump just positioned himself where he can’t be attacked on those two huge liabilities.
Was brilliant and people here still don’t see it.
Every am”bush” backfires because Trump is too smart to be trapped. Pack the audience? Doesn’t work out well when the object of attack has the guts to out you early and often.
Trump is smart. Morons don’t survive Manhattan for 50 years.
I just sit and wonder how...Just how can those lobbyists and financial backers sit there and listen to Bush...Watch his facial expressions...His body movements...His attempt to put together a coherent sentence...And STILL clap and cheer...
What could be going through their minds???
They have to be sitting there and thinking, “What the hell am I doing?”
I hope this article is accurate, Trump faces also the chattering from the pundits after the debate who mostly claimed that he needs to play nice with the audience and that he let himself react poorly to other candidates who were attacking him. I personally hope that Trump just keeps being Trump.
Never imagined I would turn on CNN and MSNBC just to laugh at the experts lie about Trump’s performance.
“He’s was booed loudly”, esclaimed Bob Schiefer. Bob is still operating under the assumption the MSM control the narrative, that Americans are unaware of the truth t That Trump called out the Bush Donor and Lobbiest stacked audience. All I saw was a doddering old lying fool.
I don’t yell as much at the TV anymore, knowing there are enough of us pointing laughing and mocking.
...and near as I can tell, it all started when the “Trump hates Immigrant” narrative crashed and burned, marking the first time in history the MSM got call out and smashmouthed by we the people.
Trump for President.
Times about up on the banker economy, and like any other trend you will want to jump before the SHTF. Trump is the only candidate that is not going to get caught behind the curve. That’s pretty important. As is the admirable fortitude :)
That first comment is a classic! Light it off and stand back!
My first reaction was not as charitable and the boos and unsportsmanlike conduct was annoying. Knowing the RNC arranged it out of petty spite reminded me of a high school clique who agrees to snub a kid or to make sure they get no applause for a performance. Juvenile.
But then I remembered how those things usually backfired on the clique-members, exposing them as small and petty. And so shall it be for the RNC in the end. In a way I can’t blame them because they know they’ll never get a dime from anyone who is a Trump supporter anyway, and if he wins, it will be the end of the GOP-e, if not the Republican Party.
He is Trumping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored...
Like The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael who said in 1972, she didn't know a single person who voted for Nixon.
Brooks Brothers republicans
I was a Brooks Brothers republican before the recession. Now I'm just a Jos. A. Bank republican.
(Riff on Lovey Howell's, "Thurston was a billionaire before the depression. Now he's just a millionaire.")
NH didn’t know a single Trump supporter reminds me of Pauline Kael in 1972 saying:
“I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.”
The elite so special so above the unwashed masses of humanity who they believe they rule.
The guy has such a powerful persona about him that it shrinks his opponents into irrelevancy.
GW managed to get elected the traditional way by putting the biggest war chest before the primaries and then under Carl Rove’s direction used the money very effectively. Rove had a huge advantage over Danny Diaz who has been hired to straighten out Jeb’s floundering campaign. Despite his goofiness and “adopted” Texas accent, GW was at least likeable, and at worst a sympathetic character. Most people are repulsed even by Jeb making a scripted campaign sound bite. How many people can really listen to Jeb for more than a few seconds without squirming in their seats? It is a testament to the power of money that Jeb has made it as far as he has in politics.
Oh my, I do like that!!!
1. He was unhinged and bringing up things that were out in left field.
2. He knew exactly what he was doing and there was a method to his madness.
At this point, we know a bit about Trump and how he moves so we are inclined to think it is 2.
However, as "conservatives" we are so conditioned to loss, weak candidates and our guys making missteps that we can't help but think it's 1. on some level.
Their puppet isn’t and never will be, a real boy, and that’s the way they want it.
Bob “Skeletor” Schieffer needs to go back to the Lyndon B. Johnson Nursing Home and commiserate with Garrison Keillor & Gloria Steinem about how racist, sexist, fascist, homophobic, & gun-loving this awful Amerika has become.
They should revoke his harrumphing license, too.
I remember that 1972 quote! Also the one that goes,
“How could McGovern lose? Everyone I know voted for him!”
;^)
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