Nancy Pelosi and the MSM are breathlessly announcing the demise of the hated Trump. He caved on the shutdown/border showdown and now it is just a matter of time before he resigns, is impeached or neutered by the fearsome force which is the Democratically controlled House of Representatives. And even if he limps home to finish his term, there is just no way for him to get re-elected after this debacle. And Russia – Pelosi is more than happy to suggest Trump is Putin’s puppet.
I didn’t think much of Trump calling off the shutdown. No doubt he had his reasons and he is pushing the idea that it is a three week hiatus; but the fact is that Trump lost that round and losing is not something which Trump is very good at. I don’t hold out much hope that the Dems will suddenly see the light on the border in three weeks and vote the funds. Nor do I think that going the “Emergency” route is likely to work simply because there will be a judge somewhere who will enjoin the Emergency declaration.
Nope, Trump needs to do something which is immune to Congressional funding and which is a much less juicy judicial target. That something is, frankly, building the wall by Presidential fiat. The how is to use Department of Defence and Department of Homeland Security funds and get going. The “Wall” itself is a not particularly good idea – there are more sophisticated ways of controlling the Southern border – but it is a huge symbol of determination. It needs to get started and if that means an end run around Congress, Trump’s predecessor did that same sort of end run to get ObamaCare up and running.
However, the Wall per se is not going to be enough to turn it around for Trump. He actually needs to take the fight to the Democrats and to the deep state itself. The indictment of Roger Stone (for “crimes” which have nothing to do with Russian collusion but rather having to do with lying to Congress – a crime everyone from James Comey to Lisa Page and Andrew McCabe have committed from inside the FBI/DOJ) means it is time to start laying out the criminal conduct of the FBI/DOJ. It means it is time to re-open the question of Hillary’s emails and how the FBI entirely mishandled that case.
The Democrats are going to spend the next two years throwing muck at Trump. It will do Trump no good at all to sit on the evidence of ongoing Democratic Party/FBI/DOJ criminal actions.
At the same time, we will have the pleasure of watching the Democratic Party nominate a Presidential candidate. My clever middle son suggests that their best bet will be the sort of candidate who I would not vote for in a million years. (My older son is too busy gloating to give the matter much thought.) The list of potential Democratic Party Presidential nominees I would not vote for is very long indeed. But Sam’s point is well taken. If the Democrats want to beat Trump they can’t work on the basis that virtually any candidate can get the job done. After all, the most qualified (and entitled) candidate of her generation lost.
Trump is going to spend the next six months to a year shoring up his base as the cliche goes. But as he does that he is also going to be picking away at key Democratic Party support. A few points in the black community, a few more with Hispanics, done right Trump could be formidable.
This is particularly true if the Democrats have a real donnybrook of a nomination fight. In a field with Irish Hispanics, fake Indians and Jamaican East Indian gals who slept their way to the top, the entertainment potential is Huge. And there is nothing more vicious than an identity-driven, virtue signalling, fight on the left. Particularly when most of the contenders have come up in an environment in which any sort of accommodation or concession will be seen as betrayal. The Twitter brigades will be out in full force and there will be no need for Russian bots to thoroughly demoralize the many losing sides in the Democratic race.
Trump was certainly hurt by the shutdown/border retreat.
But, if you are going to shoot a lion you better be damned sure to kill the lion. Trump’s retreat was not a mortal blow, the question is whether it was a flesh wound or something more serious. We’ll see over the next few weeks and then the next year.
The hyenas in the Democratic Party and the MSM have, I suspect, once again over-reached.
Jay Currie 
“If you are going to shoot a lion you better be damned sure to kill the lion.”
No doubt. But if all you want to do is unmask an incompetent blowhard, all you have to do is remove the mask and walk away. The true believers may not even notice; but there are fewer and fewer of them each month. And with puncturing of Trump’s never quite credible aura of impermeability, the blood is truly in the water.
“Jamaican East Indian gals who slept their way to the top…”
Seriously, Jay? You’re actually playin that card in a post that contains the word “Trump”?
“No doubt. But if all you want to do is unmask an incompetent blowhard, all you have to do is remove the mask and walk away.”
Agreed…but ‘unmasking’ can be done only once, and in this case was done long ago. The MSM has been unrelenting right from the start, and any ‘true believers’ who were unhappy with this action are back on board as of today, I think.
“And with puncturing of Trump’s never quite credible aura of impermeability, the blood is truly in the water. ”
So the Democrats, the MSM and Hollywood keep saying (over and over). Now the news media is trying to temper expectations regarding the Mueller report, because they know that there is nothing there that will harm Donald Trump in any meaningful way.
I don’t like Trump any more than I like any other New York Democrats, but I think he was elected for a reason (and no, not by the Russians…don’t be ridiculous) and he’s serving a useful purpose, and like it or not he still has a lot of support for what he has accomplished so far. Watching once-credible news organizations destroy their own reputations in a series of futile attempts to ‘take Trump down’ saddens me more than he himself does. If only the DNC hadn’t allowed one of the most despised people in America to *buy* the nomination right out from under the legitimate Democratic candidate, things would be a lot different right now…
“Any ‘true believers’ who were unhappy with this action are back on board as of today, I think.”
We’ll see, I guess. Most of the polls, including Rasmussen, suggest there may have been a small drop in core support over the last month. But no-one can say whether that’s significant yet. At this point the trend seems to be running against Trump, and there are more storm clouds blowing his way than toward the Dems. On the other hand, they’ve shown extraordinary capacity in the past to shit their own beds during a campaign year, and can probably be counted on to do so again.
The question of Trump’s “accomplishments” is a fascinating one, best left for another thread out of respect for our host. Trump’s one indisputable area of expertise is marketing, and although most of private sector mindset and techniques he’s relied on have (in my opinion) been disastrous, his marketing instincts have served him well: EVERYTHING is a success, NOTHING fails. Until it does. And when it does, simply move it from the list of triumphs to the list of stuff we don’t talk about. But to argue that Trump is succeeding requires that one overlook the difference between an output and an outcome.
The Mueller investigation isn’t going away. His indictments aren’t going away. You can declare it will but that doesn’t make it so. And the House is just getting started.
Trump folded on the shutdown because his numbers were caving. They’ve only just started to recover. He is now a eunuch. It’s up to the Dems not to nominate an insane person like Warren.
“That something is, frankly, building the wall by Presidential fiat. ”
That’s not how the constitution works.
Cripes you’re more deluded by the day. Baghdad Bob is laughing at you, and your kids probably are too. Can’t believe I ever took you remotely seriously.