2016 August 18^th

There have been some interesting comments about Trump’s re-jiggering—yet again—of his campaign staff. In response to the appointment of Stephen Bannon, in particular, one commentator remarked that Trump’s campaign was now “in hospice care.” Charlie Sykes who was responsible for that gem, is not some supporter of left-wing causes, he is in fact a right-wing talk radio host who despises “The Donald” because he believes that Trump is no conservative. Of course he is right about that.

Trump’s campaign has returned to the theme of “Let Trump be Trump.” That is who he has been all along and he has insisted that he will not change. The adage, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging” would seem to apply here, but not for Donald Trump. He believes that whatever he does will work…if the system isn’t rigged. He believes that it follows that if it doesn’t work then the system is rigged. His problem here begins with a faulty premise.

He also has a problem with some of his surrogates. Rudolf Giuliani has claimed, in one of his virulent sputterings, that there were no Islamist attacks against America until Obama came into office. That’s right, Giuliani said that. The 9/11 attacks happened in 2001, eight years before President Obama was elected. There was another attempt on the Towers in 1993. This isn’t the first time that Giuliani’s enthusiasms have outpaced his judgment.

Encouraged by Giuliani’s gaffe, next up was the stone-faced Katrina Pierson. Ms. Pierson tells us that Afghanistan was invaded when Obama came into office, in spite of the fact that the invasion was in 2001 under President Bush. Katrina stuck to her guns in spite of the interviewer’s attempts to set her straight. Later a Trump spokesperson ominously claimed  “I guarantee you that won’t happen again.” Will we miss Katrina? I certainly will.

Next up in fantasy-land was Trump’s lawyer, or one of them at least. Michael Cohen was being interviewed by Brianna Keilar on CNN. Her intention was to ask Cohen about the shake-up in the Trump campaign but she prefaced her remarks by mentioning that the campaign was in some difficulty. “Says who?” exclaimed Cohen . “The polls” said Keilar. Which ones asked Cohen. “All of them!” said an increasingly flummoxed Keilar. The sour faced, unsmiling Cohen then claimed that Trump would win in the end.

Polls come into the picture again when a Fox person, Eric Bolling, denied they mattered at all. In a Fox discussion, when Bolling was reminded about Trump’s declining poll numbers he claimed that they were more than compensated for by the huge crowds at his rallies. This is the same logic that has convinced Trump that because his rally crowds are so big he could only lose the election if the election were rigged.

President Obama won with 65 million votes in 2012. If Trump got 20 thousand people at 50 different rallies, that would still be just 1.5 percent of Obama’s winning total in 2012.