Speaking of American insanity, Peggy Noonan, ex-Reagan speech writer, wrote this week in the Wall Street Journal, under the lede:
The mad scatterbrained-ness of it was captured in a Washington Post interview with Philip Rucker in which five times by my count—again, the compulsion—Mr. Trump departed the meat of the interview to turn his head and stare at the television. On seeing himself on the screen: “Lot of energy. We got a lot of energy.” Minutes later: “Look at this. It’s all Trump all day long. That’s why their ratings are through the roof.” He’s all about screens, like a toddler hooked on iPad.
This was the money shot for me. Five times, Noonan was counting, Trump couldn't even stay in the moment of the interview without getting distracted--by his own likeness on television. "Mirror mirror on the wall..." That is pathological narcissism.
He got it all, was the unique outsider who shocked the entire political class with his rise. He should be the happiest man in the world, not besieged and full of complaint.
The Week They Decided Donald Trump Was Crazy
He inflicts one wound after another on his campaign.
This was the money shot for me. Five times, Noonan was counting, Trump couldn't even stay in the moment of the interview without getting distracted--by his own likeness on television. "Mirror mirror on the wall..." That is pathological narcissism.
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Here is a truth of life. When you act as if you’re insane,
people are liable to think you’re insane...
...this week...people started to become convinced he was nuts...
people are liable to think you’re insane...
...this week...people started to become convinced he was nuts...
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This is what became obvious, probably fatally so: Mr. Trump...does not have a second act, there are no hidden depths, there will be no “pivot.” It is not that he is willful or stubborn, though he may be, it’s that he doesn’t have the skill set needed now—discretion, carefulness, generosity, judgment. There’s a clueless quality about him. It’s not that he doesn’t get advice; it’s that he can’t hear advice, can’t process it...
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There IS a clueless quality to Trump.
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His supporters hope it will all turn around in the debates: He’ll wipe the floor with her; for the first time she’ll be toe-to-toe with someone who speaks truth to power. But why do they assume this? Are they watching Mrs. Clinton? She doesn’t look very afraid of him. “No, Donald, you don’t,” she purred in her acceptance speech. In debate she’ll calmly try to swat him away, cock her head, look at the moderator, smile. She’ll be watching old videos of Reagan-Carter in 1980: “There you go again.”
His supporters hope it will all turn around in the debates: He’ll wipe the floor with her; for the first time she’ll be toe-to-toe with someone who speaks truth to power. But why do they assume this? Are they watching Mrs. Clinton? She doesn’t look very afraid of him. “No, Donald, you don’t,” she purred in her acceptance speech. In debate she’ll calmly try to swat him away, cock her head, look at the moderator, smile. She’ll be watching old videos of Reagan-Carter in 1980: “There you go again.”
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...the future of the GOP will be fought, and found on whether Trumpism can be defeated along with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump would care about that if he cared about that.
