I love the old story about Earl Weaver — famed manager of the Baltimore Orioles. When befuddled by bad umpire calls, he was reputed to stroll their way and opine: Are you going to get any better, or is this it?
With regard to the circus that is the 2016 presidential election, this … is it. Unfortunately, electoral dictates prevent us from sending Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to the showers for the duration.
Sad.
Sad that, on the one hand, you have a candidate with the temperament (and vernacular) of an eighth-grader who is loath to let a jibe go without a petulant and utterly cringe-worthy retort. And, on the other, a candidate who long ago sold her soul — and dignity — in dogged pursuit of the highest office in the land.
Sad that, arguably, our best players are on the bench. Blame the media. Blame the party leaders. Blame the voters. Whatever. It should be Bernie Sanders and John Kasich going toe-to-toe in the first presidential debate come Sept. 26. The former got screwed by his own party. The latter lacked the money, message and charisma to communicate the very real fact that he is a damn good governor — with a proven track record of measurable results at the local, state and national level — worthy of the nomination.
Sad that in the world’s greatest democracy, we are left to choose between a man who is widely detested and a woman who is widely distrusted. Talk about a historic race to the bottom.
Donald Trump. Not sure who said it, but he really does look like the guy in the life raft with the women and children, doesn’t he?
He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and has demonstrated absolutely no interest in learning. I am told he has held court with some intellectual heavyweights in recent months — folks who know a thing or two. Think Henry Kissinger. But guess who does all the talking in said sit-downs? Trump. He’s not curious. He doesn’t ask questions. He thinks he is his best adviser.
One of the most effective campaign ads I have ever seen was cleverly run by the Clinton camp — you’ve probably seen it. A couple of kids sitting in front of a TV screen blankly watching and listening to Trump, in his own vile words. The tacit implication? These are your kids, your grandkids. Do you really want them exposed to this kind of degraded discourse?
Brilliant.
If they’re smart, Hillary’s minions will run another with testimonials from the contractors and small business owners — of whom there are plenty — who were left bankrupt in his reckless entrepreneurial wake over the years.
I sat in on a meeting last month with a billionaire who has long been friendly with Trump. He swears the demagogue we see on TV is not the decent guy he has known for years. But I just can’t buy it. He scares me.
Frankly, Trump is an idiot. But he’s not a fool. Polls rightly show his is a precarious path to the White House, but the path is still there. People in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania have been steamrolled by the proverbial “establishment” in recent years. They’re not upset; they’re mad. And love him or hate him, Trump is not part of the establishment.
His campaign won’t succeed by propping him up; you’re not going to convince people who don’t like Trump to like him. But they can succeed by consistently prosecuting the exceedingly winnable case against Clinton. That, and deleting his Twitter account.
Please.
Hillary Clinton. Boy did columnist and Presidential Medal of Freedom-winner William Safire nail it when, decades ago, he spoke of her difficult relationship with the truth and sagaciously dubbed her a “congenital liar.”
No doubt the glass ceiling has been shattered; just a shame that SHE was the one to do it. Turn the tables for a moment. Imagine men being long denied the right to vote. They toil their way to the top and, finally, a major party elects a man their nominee.
“Ladies and gentleman, the fight has been long and hard, but we did it. I give you our nominee for pPresident … Richard Nixon.”
You get the point.
Bernie must have been boiling at the convention in Pennsylvania, due not to the heat, but the rabid hypocrisy. It was offensive listening to Clinton re-introduce herself (once again) and pander to true progressives — decrying, for example, the outsized presence of money in politics — as she enters the home stretch of a $1.5 billion campaign that cashes more than a few checks at the very same big Wall Street banks that wrote them.
She has no fundamental core — never has. The simple truth is: the American people have known Hillary Clinton for a long time. A majority don’t like her. They don’t trust her. And for infinitely good reason.
Fully 68 percent don’t believe her to be “honest and trustworthy.”
And we are about to elect her president of the United States.
Just plain sad.
Ben Clarke, a native of Greenfield, worked as a speechwriter while living in Washington, D.C. for 10 years. A former frequent op-ed contributor to The Recorder, he resides in Boston, where he lives and works as a partner in a NYC-based communications and public relations firm.