Blogger Candidate Forum: Bad Very Bad

Hello Everyone:

Blogger Candidate Forum on the Trump scandal du jour.  For those of you who need to play catch up, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump got caught making vulgar comments about women, on an open microphone, during an interview with entertainment reporter Billy Bush. The off camera lewd remarks were made in 2005, as Mr. Trump was preparing for a guest appearance on the daytime television program Days of Our Lives. Yours truly will not repeat the comments, in the interest of maintaining some priority, suffice it say they have been repeated enough.  Although Blogger has, thus far, refused to react to any and all of Mr. Trump's steady stream of Twitter rants and verbal spewage, Blogger could not let this one go.

Needless to say, the Trump campaign is in damage control mode, again.  This time, the Trump-Pence campaign may not recover from the latest self-inflicted wound.  How deep is this wound?  It is deep enough that Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairperson has ordered money be funneled away from the Trump-Pence campaign, toward down ticket race and reach out to disaffected  Repiblicans, encouraging them to vote for Democratic nominee Secretary Hillary Clintion and her running mate Senator Tim Kaine. To give you an example, in the state of Florida, the RNC will redirect funds toward Senator Marco Rubio's re-election campaign and Floridians who support Madame Secretary (http://www.wsj.com; date accessed Oct. 8, 2016). If that was not bad enough, Republicans, such as Arizona Senator John McCain, have rescinded their support for the nominee. It gets even worse. There is a growing chorus of Red Team members calling for Mr. Trump to step down in favor of his running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence. That will not happen.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump told the newspaper that there was "zero chance" of him quitting the race. (Ibid) Why should he?  It is too late in the game and his ego is too heavily invested in it. Mr. Trump went on to tell the reporter that he was getting an unbelievable amount of support because Madame Secrerary is horribly flawed candidate (Ibid). Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Mr. Trump breezily dismissed this latest controversy, saying would all blow over the way it did after his comments about Senator McCain and his proposed ban on Muslims (Ibid). Oh really?  Is that what he thinks?  For his part, Gov. Pence did issue a statement saying that he was deeply offended by the comments and believes that Mr. Trump has sufficiently apologized and was praying for him. About that apology.

It was not so much an apology as the candidate going on the offensive. For the very briefest of moments, Mr. Trump actually did express regret for his comments. After that, he went on to describe this latest imbroglio as a mere distraction and that his comments, captured on an audiotape, were nothing compared to the way Madame Secretary and First Gentleman-in waiting Bill Clinton mistreated women. (http://www.nytimes.com; date accessed Oct. 8, 2016) Blogger's 10-1/2 year old nephew can come up with a more sincere apology than Mr. Trump.  This "apology" was just a shortened version of a stump speech he has given countless times and not a reflection of the countless hours of intense communications with his campaign staff, worried about their candidate's chances at the White House. His comments were framed as some sort of self-discovery journey, pledging to be a better person. When asked by the Wall Street Journal about his wife First Lady-in waiting Melania Trump and daughter Ivanka's reaction, Mr. Trump airily replied that they understood and were loyal.  Okay. How does this impact the remaining 29 days of this election marathon?

Sunday, October 9 is a crucial debate for both candidates. The town hall style debate will take place on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Madame Secretary has already stated that she plans to address the matter quickly. No doubt this will be on the minds of the audience, moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz. What remains to be seen is how will Mr. Trump address the issue?  Will he sound a more sincere note of remorse or will he casually dismiss it as a distraction and try to turn it back to Madame Secretary. While we are on the subject, one has to wonder if Mr. Trump will pull the trigger on the nuclear option-Bill Clinton's martial infidelities.  Blogger can only hope that Donald Trump will try salvage what ever dignity he has and try to finish the campaign on a good note. Blogger is not that optimistic.

Truth be told, if Donald Trump was still an ordinary citizen, his vulgarities would be dismissed as the ramblings of a creepy rich man but he is not an ordinary citizen anymore. Mr. Trump is running for higher office and what he says or has said does matter. Taken in context with everything else he has said, you cannot let it go. You no longer can make the argument that he is not a polished politician.  Mr. Trump and his handlers have had ample time to smooth out the rough edges. This latest controversy comes at a time when every second of every day is absolutely crucial. Both candidates need every vote they can get. In Mr. Trump's case, he has already alienated enough voters with his sexist and bigoted comments that this bombshell may prove to be the final straw.  Taken together with    the distractions of the past few weeks-poor debate performance, pre-dawn Twitter rant directed at a former pageant winner, and the revelation that he used a tax loophole to avoid paying federal taxes on a $916 billion business loss-this latest controversy is bad, very bad. With time on the clock running down quickly and loudly, there is very little, if any, time to recover.