http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/donald-trumps-debate-dirty-trickster-121098.htmlby Ben Schreckinger
August 6, 2015
To the extent that anybody can be said to influence what Donald Trump will say and do on tonight’s center stage at the presidential debate, it’s Roger Stone — yes, that Roger Stone.
Trump’s longtime adviser and a former aide to Richard Nixon, Stone has been helping the mogul prep for the debate by drafting policy memos on specific issues and engaging in general conversations about the art of the televised political debate: “Debates are about themes, they’re not about statistics,” is the philosophy Stone and Trump share, according to a person with knowledge of the mogul’s preparation.
Indeed, Stone is just one of many behind-the-scenes players whose work will be visible in the debate, even if they are completely unseen.
Whether game-changing moments emerge on camera and how they play online will depend on a cast of lesser-known characters who have shaped the rules of the forum, worked to influence what the moderators and debaters say on stage, prepped the candidates and have their finger on the button of the social media conversation.
Stone is perhaps the most important of them. He got his start in big-time politics as a college student on Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President, and he publicly embraces his image as a dirty trickster, including cooperating with a 2008 New Yorker profile by Jeffrey Toobin titled, “the Dirty Trickster.”
In the profile, Trump calls his once and future adviser a “stone-cold loser” and suggests Eliot Spitzer should have sued Stone for a stunt in which the operative allegedly called Spitzer’s aged father, claimed the elder Spitzer was being investigated for loans made to his son’s political campaigns, and threatened him with arrest if he refused to cooperate with an imaginary subpoena. He has a tattoo of Nixon’s face on his back.
MANCHESTER, NH - AUGUST 3: (L-R) Former CEO Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former New York Gov. George Pataki stand on the stage prior to the Voters First Presidential Forum for Republicans at Saint Anselm College August 3, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. The forum was organized by the New Hampshire Union Leader and C-SPAN in response to the Fox News debate later this week that will limit the candidates to the top 10 Republicans based on nationwide polls.
Stone, who has also worked for Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole, has publicly expressed his disdain for the Bush family and stated his intentions of preventing a third Bush presidency. The person with knowledge of Trump’s debate preparation said Stone is not pushing the mogul to lash out at Jeb Bush or any of the other candidates, but, “If [Trump]’s attacked, which he will be by Chris Christie, he’ll respond.”
Meanwhile, Stone’s associate, Sam Nunberg, combed through Trump’s two policy-oriented books, 2000’s “The America We Deserve” and 2011’s “Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again,” to flag outdated or controversial passages that could become fodder for tough questions or lines of attack. Nunberg, a young lawyer, was fired by Trump last year for his role in facilitating a critical BuzzFeed profile of his boss before joining up with his presidential campaign and getting fired again this past weekend after Business Insider unearthed racist notes posted to his personal Facebook page in years past.
Whether the moderators or rival campaigns are able to trip up Trump will depend in large part on the work done by Stone and his young associate, though the person familiar with the candidate’s prep said the most anyone can do to influence Trump’s performance is introduce concepts and information, which he will then formulate in his own words off the cuff on the debate stage. “He’s not standing in a mirror trying out one-liners.”
Excerpt. Read more (rest of the article does not pertain to Stone):
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/donald-trumps-debate-dirty-trickster-121098.html#ixzz3iF95bMow(Fuller's note: Stone, a longtime Republican, defected to the Libertarian Party in 2013. Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/gop-trickster-roger-stone-defects-to-libertarian-party/2012/02/16/gIQASIvUIR_blog.html)
