That's kinda personal.....
You're a big boy. If the shoe fits, right?
Well, Grey, I am not going to try to defend Trump's down and dirty argument with Joe Scarborough except to say it isn't one sided.
So you are justifying it. Okay Cliff. Duly noted and this is likely an impasse for us. I find Trump's behavior to be so utterly immature and mean-spirited that it comes through to me as pathetic. He's a bully and a blowhard.
I find the ethical gymnastics that his supporters go through to justify or explain all this away to be disingenuous and if possible more pathetic than Trump himself. Its easy to hide behind the "Devil's choice" argument or the "Democrats are evil" argument. But its, again, lazy or worse a ruse.
Maybe people think that being an asshole is just proper, ethical behavior. That is inspiring leadership. Well, actually, we all know that's horseshit.
It would be refreshing to have someone actually tell me, "I think the guy is doing a great job as President. I do also think he's a tremendous douche." Its disheartening how rarely, and I mean rarely, I see anything like that from a supporter.
Now you can argue that a President should be above the fray, but I would imagine that a constant drumbeat of accusations of the type Scarborough and his ilk have initiated can get old
Again, calls into question his mental and emotional fortitude. He's worried about Christie Teigen and John Legend's tweets for example? (Google it if you want). He has the emotional maturity of a child. Talk about majoring in the minors. Put that mental and emotional energy to use doing your damn job instead of tweeting. Its concerning.
and Trump is a fighter and is obviously capable of fighting about as dirty as his detractors.
Again, this is another of the sleights of hand here. He's not a fighter. He's a bully. That's not the same thing.
And spare me the "his detractors fight dirtier" narrative. Newsflash Cliff: Trump's been wallowing in the mud fighting with both real and perceived enemies long before he ran for POTUS.
I do like much of what he has done with respect to foreign affairs, getting NATO to pay their fair share, defeating ISIS and basically ending the constant foreign wars we have been fighting for almost twenty years. I like his trade agreements. And I think his handling of the economy was masterful prior to the coronavirus, and I think he has handled that about as well as might have been expected.
Again, from a policy perspective I would agree with much of what you wrote above. Jury's out on the Corona virus as we simply don't know (and may never know) enough yet to give him a grade.
This goes back to my previous point, however. Unless you are going to tell me the only way to have an effective administration is to vote a complete asshole into the job, we should demand better. The republican party and all its voters are being complicit in this thing. What do I mean?
Well, the "it was either Trump or Hilliary" argument can only be used once. Someday a Democratic president will be elected again. Perhaps this cycle. What the republicans could have done was stand up to the potential wrath of Trump to demand better of him. And if he didn't change (which we know he can't; he's a one trick pony), you pivot to a new Republican candidate in 2020. The Democrats are a complete mess. Surely there's at least one non-asshole Republican that could have beaten a dimwit?
And he is most certainly not a dimwit in the sense that Biden is.
Sure he is. You just like him and/or his politics more than you like Biden's.
So given the choice between Trump and Biden, I tend go with Trump. I take it from your post that you are likely to cancel my vote?
Count on it. We can survive a Democratic president. Hell, we've done it a number of times. I'm much more worried about the future of our nation if the new normal for leadership is modeled after a divisive, narcissistic, mean-spirited bully. That's the real risk in my view. I demand a higher standard.
And Cliff, nothing changes the fact that you're one of my favorites!
