Tuesday, July 17, 2018

An Opinion on This Week's Opinions


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This week the President traveled to Europe to play golf on his course in Scotland, chat up the Queen, aggravate the leadership of NATO and get the press all lathered up over his comments.  Before he came home he stopped by Finland to talk with Vlad about that Russia versus USA thing, again lathering up the press, and most of the professional politicians and political analysts (who really pass along opinions not facts) in the press.

This week opinions on the President range from shrugs by his supporters to the continuing cries for his impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” against the Republic because he didn’t defend the intelligence bureaucracy when a reporter put the question to the President while he was standing next to Vladimir.

I imagine (which is a fancy way of saying I have an opinion), the week came off pretty close to how the President intended.  He was the center of attention, he pissed off the people he wanted, and he remains the center of a fractured opposition that has so many different agendas it can’t focus on a single target.

In World War II when Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) was developed and began directing gunfire they (and there are multiple they) had to come up with ways to defeat it.  For example, they found that throwing out tiny strips of aluminum would cloud the picture on the RADAR scope.  They called this technique “Window,” today we call it chaff. 

I tend to believe 90+% of what comes from the lips or fingers of the President is only semi-spontaneous.  I think 100% it has two purposes.  The first is to keep the spotlight of the world on him, and the second is to scatter so much chaff that nothing really hits home because of the short attention span of the press, his political opposition, and the population.  They go from chaff burst to chaff burst with their outrage, always just missing the real issues that brought him to office in the first place.

While homeland defense, nuclear security, border security and world peace are all admirable things they are also well outside the control of the average citizen.  A viable economy, with available jobs, affordable housing, and disposable cash are really the things that get Presidents elected.  In the words of Bill Clinton as he campaigned against Bush (the elder): (it’s) “the economy, stupid.”  During the 2016 campaign, the DNC (in the form of Hillary Clinton) abandoned the critical states where a stagnant economy was making life miserable choosing to focus on the grand social issues so important to those clustered in the urban Northeast and West coast.  Truth be told, I think Hillary just found it more comfortable hanging with her friends and campaigned based on the flawed opinions of her political analysts.    

Until the press, and more importantly the political opposition, begin to move away from their outrageous opinions and start dealing with the facts of what are important to the average middle-class citizen the grand show of Trump v the World will continue and the President has proven himself to be a master at orchestrating that three-ring circus, but that is just my opinion.

3 comments:

Gino said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gino said...

i do not think Trump is a master at orchestrating the circus around him. that was Bill Clinton. he knew how to wag the dog.
Trump is more like a manager... he walks the dog that he is handed.

and he wins more than he doesnt.

he's a numbers guy.
a bottom line type.
his skill set is 'managing the unexpected', not creating it.

there is a reason why he cleared out Tillerman et al, and replaced him with Bolton and Popeo at al leading up to meeting with Putin. Trump does his homework. It is how he got to where he is.
as mistep or two will be corrected... he's a bottom line dude... not glued to any idealogy.

John said...

Gino,
Good comment, thanks, but I have to disagree with the assessment that Trump is only a manager of what has been handed to him. His whole life he has been a wheeler and dealer, finding and creating opportunities where others see nothing. If he were just managing things then as a good manager he would attempt to reduce personal risk and seek safe opportunities to guide his agenda. Obama was a manager, playing to his base, but always having a cutout to protect him if he got too far in front of the message.

I agree he is not tied to any particular ideology, but the approach in his current job is akin to that of all the great showmen like P.T. Barnum and the Ringling Brothers. A friend suggested his style in messaging is drawn from his friendship with Vince McMahon, CEO of the WWE, and his experiences in Reality TV. I think he has a point in that belief.

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