Political Potpourri

By William L. Garvin

This year’s presidential campaign bears out a couple of aphorisms.  The first is “politics is acting for unattractive people.”  The second is: “Never get into a mud fight with a pig because you lose a lot of ground; everyone gets dirty; and the pig likes it!”  As Trump is finding out, the Clintons are experts in mud wrestling and the Democrats have raised the politics of personal destruction to an art form.

During the party conventions, much ado was made about Melania Trump’s speech containing words and phrases previously used by Michelle Obama.  One should note that Michelle’s speech was not her original thought but a carefully crafted text written by a speech writer to be read from a teleprompter. Likewise, Melania’s presentation also was a carefully crafted text written by a speech writer which she too read from a teleprompter.  Let’s ignore the fact that the wording in question in both cases was a time honored cliché about a man’s word being his bond and one should always do what you say you are going to do.  The main point is that the conventions were carefully managed Hollywood stage productions scripted and directed for entertainment rather than political edification.

Of course, the mud wrestling comes in when the final contest is between a political outsider with no political record and a lifelong politician with no political accomplishments of note.  It is far better for Hillary to attack Donald’s character and temperament than to defend her own failures and the continuation of failed Obama administration policies.  To quickly recap, economic growth is anemic, wages are stagnant, labor participation and home ownership are falling, illegal immigration is rampant, terror and crime are up, and Obamacare is collapsing.  Over half of the state exchanges have failed, premiums are up, deductibles are up, and choice is down.  The fiscal year 2016 deficit was $588 billion which boosted the national debt to an astounding $19.7 TRILLION!  So Hillary wants to raise taxes and spend more on a “stimulus package” which will have REAL “shovel ready jobs” this time around.  Right!

She doesn’t want to talk about Russia’s increasing bellicosity following her laughable reset button nor her numerous mid-East disasters.  Why even Yemen feels emboldened to fire missiles at U.S. warships and send “spotter craft” to direct the targeting with no concern of significant retaliation.  Naturally she doesn’t want to talk about her own infamous temper tantrums and vulgar language documented in the many books about her time in the White House.  It’s far more important to focus on Donald’s mean words that according to Michelle Obama “have shaken me to my core” since she never heard that language before.  Apparently Michelle missed the performances in the Obama White House by Beyonce and the cop-hating rappers with their vulgar and hateful lyrics.  The Democrat party in general, which dismissed all the impropriety of the Clinton presidency as “just sex,” now seems obsessed with moral outrage.  What should we think of the millions of women who fawned, fondled, fantasized and flaunted their fascination with FIFTY SHADES OF GREY?  Are they likewise “shaken to the core”?  Doubtful.

Her mudslinging innuendoes about Trump tax returns are also interesting.  Ignore the fact that all of her charitable contributions go to the Clinton Foundation.  When she talks about Trump losing nearly a billion dollars one year, she “forgets” that she lost $6 billion of taxpayer money while Secretary of State.  Trump recouped his losses; she won’t.  And when it comes to taking deductions, many will remember the famous Mike Royko column where he mockingly noted that the Clintons would donate Bill’s old skivvies to Goodwill or the Salvation Army and deduct four dollars per pair and twelve dollars per pair of long johns!  He also noted that used underwear in thrift shops in Arkansas usually went for about fifty cents!  And whatever we do, let’s not talk about how twenty percent of our uranium was sold to Russia.  Let’s continue to talk about her lifelong fight for children but not the donations to her foundation from countries that denigrate and destroy women and children in deed as opposed to words.

Donald is losing the mud fight to the experts, losing to the media tag teams of Clinton supporters, losing to the Washington elite, and losing to the debate moderators.  It is likely that this time the entire White House, not just the Lincoln Bedroom, will be up for sale.  If the allegations about Trump are ever proven to be true, then win or lose, a sexual predator will be stalking the halls of power.  Interns beware!