Schumer’s Praise For Obama
I wonder how many of your readers caught this little tidbit reported by The New York Times after it became clear that President Obama had enough votes to get his way with the Iran deal:
“Regardless of how one feels about the agreement, fair-minded Americans should acknowledge the president’s strong achievements in combating and containing Iran,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer.
What, exactly, have been Obama’s “strong achievements in combating and containing Iran”? And if Schumer really thinks Obama has been strong with regard to Iran, why did he line up against the Iran agreement?
Yerachmiel Miller
(Via E-Mail)
Thumbs Down On Trump
I very much appreciated Noah Rothman’s insightful op-ed piece on Donald Trump and his followers (“Trump Is Making Fools of His Fans,” Sept. 11).
Watching the coverage of Trump’s campaign appearances as well as interviews with his supporters, I now understand how whole groups of people fall under a demagogue’s sway. He comes across as a sneering carnival barker whose supporters, unable to explain where their man stands on any given issue (probably because he chooses not to articulate any positions beyond grunts and insults), are reduced to uttering inane cliches like “He’ll get things done” or “He’ll know how to handle them.”
Even more problematic, he’s garnering the support of a dangerous collection of the country’s biggest haters (do a little Google search to learn about all the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who are backing him).
Chaim Herman
(Via E-Mail)
Thumbs Up On Trump
Listening to Trump’s opponents, it sounds like wanting to make the country great again is a crime. “A clown” is what some people like to call Trump. You mean someone who created one of the world’s most recognizable brands is a clown?
Trump is not perfect, but no candidate is. What he has going for him is a brilliant mind and a disdain for this crazy politically correct country we’ve become. He’s a straight talker. A breath of fresh air. Someone who unapologetically loves this country and hates to see us lose at everything. Someone whose heroes are Generals George Patton and Douglas MacArthur. That’s the kind of man we need for president.
Eric Goldman
(Via E-Mail)
Election Rhetoric
Donald Trump keeps talking about how America is spiraling downhill and how we never win at anything anymore. As is his habit, he’s big on overstatements but short on specifics.
Certainly there are issues that should concern all Americans, as there are every four years when we elect a president, but history tells us that no matter what the year and the circumstances, candidates for the presidency, particularly those belonging to the party out of power, always paint an apocalyptic vision of an America about to be dragged under due to the depredations of the incumbent president and his party.
Republicans made horrific claims about the state of the nation when they wanted to unseat Truman in 1948; Democrats did likewise in 1956 when they attempted to defeat President Eisenhower and in 1960 when they beat Eisenhower’s vice president, Richard Nixon; Nixon talked the same talk in 1968 when he prevailed over the incumbent Democratic vice president, Hubert Humphrey; Jimmy Carter indulged in the same scare tactics when he edged out President Ford in 1976; Ronald Reagan turned the tables on Carter four years later with imagery of an America facing imminent collapse; and on and on through more recent elections, including 2008 when Barack Obama spoke about the U.S. rushing headlong toward catastrophe and 2012 when his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, predicted irreversible national decline in the event of another Obama victory.
For a country supposedly on the edge of destruction every four years, we seem to come through relatively well.