“I do whine because I want to win and I'm not happy about not winning and I am a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win," said Republican front-runner Don Trump today in outlining his presidential philosophy to CNN's' Chris Cuomo. The "Art of the Deal" has devolved into "The Art of the Whine."
Hillary Clinton nailed it, saying The Donald is running more of an entertainment show than a political campaign, while pundits expect the bombastic one to self-implode.
Gerald Steib, Wall Street Journal "Capital Journal" columnist, captured the conventional wisdom of the pundit class today, writing that Trump's antics benefit his "rivals" such as ex-Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He called Bush III "the safest possible alternative to the perils of Mr. Trump."
In a traditional presidential campaign, Steib (I'm a big fan) would be 100 percent correct.
But as Buffalo Springfield used to sing, "There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear."
Note to Steib: voters aren't looking for "safe" candidates. Hello, Bernie Sanders.
I thought Trump came across as a blowhard during the Great Republican debate. A post-debate survey by NBC News found otherwise. The survey showed Trump increased his lead among probable GOP primary voters by a percentage point to 23 percent from a week ago.
Granted it's a tiny gain, but presidential timber Bush suffered a three percent post-debate dip in support to seven percent.
Bush trails Trump, Ted Cruz (13 percent), Ben Carson (11 percent), Carly Fiorina (eight percent) and Marco Rubio (eight percent) for a tie with Scott Walker for sixth place in the NBC tally.
My hunch: Jeb isn't destined to be the GOP standard-bearer.
As for the "uproar" among the Republican establishment over Trump keeping his options open for an independent run, 54 percent of his supporters say they would abandon the GOP rather than The Donald as a third-party candidate.
The Grand Poohbahs of the GOP can whine all they want about the bombastic New Yorker sucking all the oxygen from the other candidates.
But they should remember Trumpster's counsel that whining is only for winners like the one-and-only.
The ridiculously high prices Americans are paying at the supermarket might influence how—or if—they vote in November.
At a moment in history when there are so many conflicts among peoples here and abroad, let us put our differences aside and celebrate this wonderful season in a spirit of togetherness.
The news announcing the death of Henry Kissinger, the last of the prevaricating politicians and so-called statesmen who stole my future and that of thousands of other young Americans, got me thinking about Walter Cronkite.
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