Biting The Hand That Feeds You

I was  listening to Lou Dobbs last evening during which time he was castigating Trump for his name calling and vagaries.  Today I see Trump isn't going to appear on FOX programs- at least for awhile. They aren't treating him nicely.

Wow.  FOX made this man! I fear the Trump and pony show is getting old.  Really old.  Yes, he has been a great cheer leader but he still hasn't come out with specifics on how he plans to fulfill his promises.

Can you imagine him going after world leaders in the same vein? Putin is really stupid.  Really Stupid.  Angela Merkel.  Look at that face.  Who would listen to her? Netanyahu. He isn't very nice to me so I won't talk to him. Sheesh!

Scott Walker had the good grace to bow out of the race when it became readily apparent he couldn't win. Good grace isn't Trump's long suit but maybe if enough people aren't nice to him or about him he'll have one final snit and bow out.

He could still be of great service.  He could get behind the actual candidate and tell everyone how great he/she is and all the wonderful things he/she will do.  Continue being cheerleader-in-chief on making the country great again.  Of course that means who ever the candidate is will have to have said nothing negative about The Donald.  Unfortunately that eliminates most of them!

There could be a consolation prize waiting in the wings for Trump, however, if he plays his cards right.  He could go back to doing what he does best - building things.  Give him a contract and have him build the wall.  He can tell us how great it will be, how easy it will be and give him all the face time he could possible want.

Building the greatest wall the world has ever seen and bowing out of the race are possibly the two greatest contributions to the country the man could make!  Maybe a lot of people, including FOX, would be nice to him again to boot!

Time To Dump The Sacred Cow

No, I don't mean Donald Trump.  Though I must say he's taking care of it all by himself.  I think it's time to divorce ourselves from the notion the President has to come from the ranks of the previously elected.  Why not a solid business executive?

Why?

Most have no managerial experience what-so-ever.  What about governors?  It's all within the realm of politics thus stifling the creativity and innovation needed in the private sector to succeed.

Let's face it, corporate leaders are far more likely to know world leaders or their representatives than the average member of Congress or most governors. They know how to delegate, negotiate, make decisions and reason in a non-partisan manner.  Their obligation is to their stock holders, not themselves.

While I like Ben Carson; he is a good and brilliant man but I've yet to see he can manage.  Trump?  What does he do well other than bully, deprecate his opponents and speak in generalities touting how great he would be?  But nothing yet about how.

Carly. Look beyond HP. What happened to her there is not uncommon and we need to understand that. What we also need to consider is she is bright, quick, assured, informed and unafraid. She is woman, hear her roar.  She has substance based on experience, homework and tenacity.

Can she handle Congress?  I'd rather ask if they really think they can roll her.  I doubt it. World leaders?  She's no shrinking violet.  Manage?  Heads and tails above anyone who shared that debate stage including Trump.

She may not win.  We may listen too much to the negativity that is beginning to ramp up but she deserves our consideration.  If you're willing to consider Hillary you should be willing to consider Carly. It's no longer about petty party politics but rather the very substance of our nation.  Who we are and what we want to be.  Are we content with the things as they are?  Trump's rise would indicate we are not.

Let's get serious about who can best serve the country as a whole; who has the skill, the temperament and the background.

If there were other top tier business executives in the race I'd be giving the same pep talk about any of them. What we don't need is another untried, manipulated and beholden politician.

Enough Already!

I had just settled down to watch some before dinner TV last night when all programming on the cable channels turned to New Hampshire and Trump.  Please.  Is he the only one running for President?

I listened to his aggrandizing opening one more time then a bit longer when he announced he was going to something different - take questions.  Really!  He did.  But he never answers them.  Not one while I was listening and some were indeed quite specific.  Just the same old "I guarantee you when I'm President that won't happen..."

What he did do is savagely attack Carly Fiorina.  He must be worried about her burgeoning popularity.

Neither of them are perfect by any manner.  Both have had business successes and failures but I see the beginnings of the "Romneying" of Carly. She's to blame for everything that went wrong with HP and Lucent and now everyone who lost their job in shake ups is coming out of the woodwork. Oh, she ruined my life!  And how long  ago was was that?  Haven't you done anything since?  Stuff happens.  Hub lost more than one job due to corporate turmoil. We didn't like it but we didn't wallow in it.  We moved on.

Okay.  That's a prejudiced paragraph because I like Carly Fiorina. That being said, to date other than Ben Carson, she and Trump are getting all the press.  And Carson darn little at that other than poll results.

Frankly, I would like to hear about other candidate rallies and speeches.  From both parties.  I don't care about network ratings, I care about information and I'm not getting it. Where is Jim Webb?  Where is Martin O'Malley and Lincoln Chaffey and what issues are they campaigning on?  I haven't a clue.  Do you?

The same holds true for Rick Santorum and George Pataki.  They certainly aren't sitting at home twiddling their thumbs waiting for Trump to topple.

The media has an obligation to cover all the candidates, not be the determining factor of who has the right to move up and who doesn't. It's no wonder politicians have a love/hate relationship with the media.  They have the power to make you or break you depending on their own personal ideology.  That's wrong.  They're supposed to be objective but with the lines blurred between punditry, reporting and entertainment, we the public are being ill served.

I shouldn't have to watch FOX to hear about the Republicans nor MSNBC to hear about Democrats.  I should be able to listen to either and get the same perspective.  Objectivity.

We rightfully put a pox on both political parties; the media deserves the same.

My Take

I'll admit I didn't watch the debate from beginning to end.  Hub kept switching to reruns of M*A*S*H.  But I saw enough to form an opinion independent from what FOX told me I should think after the fact.

It is said Trump won with Carly a close second. I don't think Trump won.  It was the same old self  aggrandizing hype with no specifics and way too  much mugging.  His attempts at covering up past gaffes were embarrassing in their lack of sincerity.

In some instances I though Carly was strong.  Especially on our military needs looking forward and her poignant response about the hidden evils of marijuana.  It's tough being the only woman on a stage full of men, all able to out shout you by virtue of the tenor of their voices!

Stronger, I thought, were both Rubio and Christie.  Ben Carson was so low key as to almost get lost. Kastich was his usual pragmatic self.  He may be the sleeper in the group if you lean toward one who is basically a career politician.

I may not be giving the remaining candidates a fair shake because I didn't see enough of them when they had a chance to speak. I heard little from Cruz other than his usual defiance of just about everything.  Rand Paul's ideas are far different than my view of things, especially on drugs.  I feel Huckabee is wrong about Kim Davis deserving special considerations due to her religious beliefs.  That's a slippery slope that has already gone too far.

Walker and Bush?  Bush just doesn't inspire me nor does Walker.  That's just personal taste.

One thing I did notice though is each spoke with a degree of passion only on their achievements as narrow as some may be.  It made them appear one dimensional. The question is what strength do they have beyond that one?   Questions about what their code name would be or who should be pictured on our currency add nothing to the debate.

Hopefully next go round it will be a tighter field and the questions designed to draw out candidate positions rather than the moderator's Q ratings. It isn't about them!

An Aha! Moment

I watched the beginning of the Trump rally in Dallas until dinner was ready and found, to no surprise, a certain sameness to it.  That's okay.  All candidates have their stump speeches and if you don't follow politics to the extent I do they will be new to a certain percentage of rally attendees.

That being said, Trump's rarely contain substance.  That too is okay at this point. Whether or not he succeeds in the long run, though, will depend on substance in certain forums. Because certain forums haven't yet died.  The political pundits.

In that vein I also listen to the Washington insiders discussing the Trump phenomenon and their seeming inability to "get it".  I think I've figured out what they're missing.

People are so disgusted with Washington they want an outsider.  That's been the consensus and probably the correct one.  More than that I think they no longer care who fixes it - Democrat or Republican.  Just fix it!  This is where Trump is the master.  He preaches nothing but the positive.  We will be great again.  He'll do it. People love it.  Some of his ideas are more to the left, some more to the right and all likely to change as will the circumstances.  The people get it.  The politicians and pundits don't.

I think political ideology is shrinking into the walls of establishment enclaves be they in the media or the halls of Congress.  The people aren't so particular.  Gay marriage is now legal.  Okay. No big deal except for a few on whom the media choose to focus. Cops are under fire because of the lack of balance of those they target.  We get that the field isn't level because those committing the crimes aren't equally dispersed among ethnic backgrounds.  We get it.  The pols and pundits don't seem to.

We don't care if it's Republican policies or Democrat policies that are causing our financial woes. Both are to blame.  We get it.  The pols and pundits don't.

So aha! That's the deal.  We want someone who cares for the country and we who call it home and tells us in no uncertain terms he can fix it. We don't care who he or she is. But Trump has the track record of success.  Who wouldn't want to follow his lead on that basis?

Forget what the party says, listen to us and to borrow from Nike, just do it!