Washington Post (Right Turn)
By Jennifer Rubin
September 11, 2015
We
cannot tell if it is the beginning of Donald Trump’s end or the end of
his free pass to say whatever he pleases. In either case, the real
estate egomaniac had a rough
day of it yesterday.
Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal delivered a stemwinder denouncing Trump’s character
defects (“He’s a narcissist. He’s an egomaniac. The only thing he
believes in is himself.
The reality is that I want to say what everybody is thinking about
Donald Trump but afraid to say.”) on the same day Trump was taking heat
for criticizing Carly Fiorina’s appearance. (“Look at that face! Would
anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that,
the face of our next president. I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not
supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we
serious?”) He insisted yesterday, “I’m not talking about looks. I’m
talking about persona.” But that makes no sense, obviously.
He simply was caught being obnoxious and did not have the decency to
apologize. Jeb Bush and numerous conservative voices dinged Trump for
insulting her as well as Ben Carson.
Then,
to top it off, Trump reversed himself on Syrian refugees, apparently
remembering after a brief lapse that his cult is based on xenophobia. He
previously expressed
empathy for the refugees, victims in a war President Obama allowed to
fester. Then he decided we should do no such thing. National Review
Institute’s Ian Tuttle writes that “it’s yet another reminder that Trump
really does not have policies; he has assertions.
He squirts out declarative sentences, because he’s The Strong Guy Who
Takes a Stand, but whether he declares one way or another is largely a
matter of chance. Since he tends to reach positions by a process of
guess-and-check, I assume this second statement
is the one Trump will stick with. But is it what he actually thinks?”
It
is wrong to say these controversies only help Trump. To the contrary,
it is becoming politically unacceptable outside the Trump cult to
tolerate his piggish behavior
and insults. Serious conservatives can no longer pretend he is a
serious candidate. Forget the meaningless national polls, many of which
capture voters who won’t come near a caucus or a primary voting booth.
Look to the states where his margins are shrinking.
Now
think of the regular caucus goer in Iowa, a pillar of her community. Is
she going to try persuading her neighbor whose come out on a freezing
Tuesday night that Trump
is the best candidate? I imagine she and many others would be
embarrassed to do so. And that is the point: Making Trump a pariah in
polite company — where the majority of Republicans still reside — limits
his ability to win contests, especially when the field
shrinks from 17 to, say, four or five.
Sensible
Republicans should keep up the drumbeat, whether directly in the debate
or in response to his campaign trail pronouncements. Trump is revealing
he is either unable
to control himself (poor impulse control is not a quality one wants in a
commander in chief) or devoid of decency and relevant knowledge.
Trimming down his band of followers to the hardest of the hard core, the
angriest in the party (and not necessarily primary
voters) will rob him of support he will need to prevail over the long
haul. That’s the theory, at any rate.
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