Donald Trump’s Self-Created Pothole

[ScottinVA]

Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/08/02/donald-trumps-self-created-pothole/)

By Peter D. Hart
 
Aug 2, 2016 5:01 am ET

Peter D. Hart, founder of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, helps conduct the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Everyone is waiting to gauge the “bounce,” or the positive effects of the presidential nominating conventions, but political history is also replete with post-convention thuds. That’s when a campaign suddenly hits a pothole and spends days or weeks trying to recover.

Most every political junkie can cite the debate moments when elections have turned: when President Gerald R. Ford proclaimed in a 1976 debate that Eastern Europe was free, for example, or when Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis gave an emotionless response in 1988 when asked whether he would support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were raped and murdered.

Less well appreciated than these standout moments are post-convention events that take a campaign down a peg and from which they never fully recover.

In most cases, the campaign was already behind and faced an uphill struggle; the missteps cemented uncertainties voters already had about the underdog.

For example, vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin came out of the Republican convention in 2008 as a fresh face, but before a fortnight had passed she had sparked enough backlash that comedian Tina Fey parodied her on “Saturday Night Live” for the duration of the campaign. Mrs. Palin’s running mate, John McCain, paid the price. In 1984, the selection of Geraldine Ferraro as the Democratic vice presidential nominee was hailed as a breakthrough. About a month later, after repeated questions about her husband’s tax records, she faced a battery of cameras and reporters during a marathon press conference devoted to her family’s finances. She was never quite the same candidate thereafter, and presidential nominee Walter Mondale lost any chance to be competitive. The most famous case is 1972 Democratic vice presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton withdrawing after it emerged that he had received electric shock treatments in the 1960s. Running mate George McGovern, who had initially said he backed Mr. Eagleton 1000%, watched him withdraw, and Richard Nixon easily won reelection.

Today, we may be watching the first time a presidential nominee has created his own pothole: by attacking the immigrant parents of a U.S. soldier who died in service to his country. How deeply this cuts and how long this story lasts depends on Donald Trump. He could apologize and the subject may change, but the campaign has suffered a critical wound because this issue speaks to the character of the candidate. This exchange is not something that he can turn back on Hillary Clinton or somehow blame on a staff writer or the media. These remarks are 100% Donald Trump. He said these things, he doubled down, and he owns this attack line.

It has been my contention for some time in the 2016 campaign that the Trump campaign effectively has been carrying a paper bag of water. Each misstep adds more water to the bag. At some point, the bag will rip and the water will gush out. The candidate’s back-and-forth with Khizr and Ghazala Khan may not be the instance that rips the bag, but it is significant. It has changed the dynamics of the character issue from being solely about Hillary Clinton to also being very much about Donald Trump.

The orange-headed buffoon can't resist tripping over his own rhetorical feet.   Either he has an idiot's IQ or he's doing all this sh*t intentionally.

[Dirt for sale]

The porcine prevaricator has made himself a pot au feu and put himself in poundage with his potty response to the procession of PC golden calves, which he is peeing on with premorseful and pre scripted prejudice.

[r9etb]

Much of this is self-inflicted on Trump's part - his reliance on bombast and insult played very well for him during the primaries (with a lot of craven media complicity), but it doesn't work when the media are already predisposed toward his opponent.

At this point the media are so spring-loaded to jump on anything Trump says, there's probably no way out.