Crazy As A Loon

Donald Trump is setting the stage for what he clearly believes is going to be his defeat on November 8th.

He's been making references to our "rigged system", but now he's going further by stating that the only way he'll be defeated is because our elections are rigged and that cheating will be involved. His narcissism is so great that he is willing to plant seeds of massive distrust and directly imply we are a Banana Republic, just to soothe his own ego.

I still cannot predict what will happen on election day. By normal metrics a candidate that is as erratic and bombastic as Trump would lose, but just how many Americans want to burn the house down is unknown. Trump's rallies, in spite of what he thinks, are not an indication of his support. His rallies only demonstrate that people want to attend a free show.

Attacking the media has always been good for a politician but Trump is now taking it to a new level. He now says not only is he up against "Crooked Hillary" but he's being attacked by the crooked media. He says the media are all crooked and disgusting people. Strange comments from a man who has a parasitic relationship with the media. He has spent forty years manipulating it and doing anything he can to get press coverage. He is a media whore, he loves them and needs them. His attacks on them now are completely disingenuous, but that's Trump. He has said many times that even bad press is good for him, because he's being talked about. He didn't create that philosophy but does take it to new levels.

This past week he said Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the founders of ISIS. When he was given an out to restate what he meant he doubled down on it, then said he was being sarcastic, then retracted that and said not really. By his logic, the founders of ISIS would be George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. I'm not saying that, I'm just offering a Trumpism.

Some days I don't know which is worse, Trump or his surrogates. One of his top spokespersons said that President Obama started the Afghanistan War and threw in Hillary Clinton for extra icing on her make believe cake. Stating that as fact is nuts. Trump's surrogates always refuse to answer questions about their candidates crazy over the top rhetoric, for good reason, they can't defend it. Except for the ones who themselves are lunatics they have to deflect and try to make it about Hillary Clinton. Watching them is painful and yields nothing.

All of the negatives that surround Hillary Clinton are being reported but Trump's insatiable desire for media coverage is overshadowing it. All Clinton has to do is keep running her ads and let Trump gut himself daily. She doesn't have to do press conferences because of his behavior. She needs only to wait for the debates and I'm not convinced that Trump will ever debate her. He knows her personally and he knows he cannot match her knowledge of policy.

The Republican Party is in deep trouble. It's problems have been building since the primaries of 1992 and has now reached critical mass. Where is it headed and who will emerge to either correct it's course or totally destroy it?