US Election: 2016

[mariomike]

 

[a_majoor]

The media plan for the election. It should seem pretty familiar to Canadians:

Ultimate Media Privilege: Hillary’s Crimes Versus Trump’s Mouth
Trump only 'talks awful'—Hillary actually 'does awful'
By Austin Bay • 08/03/16 10:00am

A mainstream media tsunami of contempt is inundating Donald Trump, its two-story wave combining innuendoes of treason with deserved scorn for Trump’s stupid attempt to debate grieving father and Democratic National Convention speaker Khizr Khan.

Wait…Treason innuendoes directed at Trump? What pretzel of Joe McCarthy spin is this, Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook, given Hillary’s negligent disregard for laws protecting classified national security information—a fact supported by FBI investigation?

In a moment we’ll address the calculated pretzel and examine those who baked it and those who continue to distribute the twisted product via Media Privilege.

But first, The Donald’s behavior: Candidate Trump’s tangle with Mr. and Mrs. Khan deserves rebuke. The Khans’ son, U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, died in combat in Iraq in 2004. The Khans are a Gold Star family and Trump owes them an apology. I endorse what Sen. Tom Cotton, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program, “that every American speak to Gold Star families tenderly and with respect and even love.” I served in Iraq in 2004. Cotton gently speaks the truth.

Yet—mainstream media continue to ignore Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi lie to Patricia Smith, who, in something of a political mirror to Khan, spoke at the Republican National Convention.

“I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son,” Smith said. A moment later she addressed Hillary’s lie: “In an email to her daughter (Chelsea) shortly after the attack, Hillary Clinton blamed it on terrorism. But when I saw Hillary Clinton at Sean’s coffin ceremony, just days later, she looked me squarely in the eye and told me a video was responsible. Since then, I have repeatedly asked Hillary Clinton to explain to me the real reason why my son is dead. I’m still waiting.”

Left wing media railed—against Smith.

Cruel? Stupid? Deserving rebuke? Yes. Clinton’s behavior reflects what criminal prosecutors call a fact pattern. The parents of other Benghazi victims have also accused Clinton of blatant lying. Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were both former U.S. Navy Seals. They resisted the terrorist attack on the Benghazi consulate. They were security guards, they weren’t on active duty but they died in combat, just like Captain Khan. Yes, combat. They died fighting terrorists. Outmanned, outgunned, at great odds—and calling for reinforcements.

Yet Hillary’s hideous falsehoods, boldfaced lies to grieving parents, go unrequited. Instead of ferocious outrage, mainstream media treat Hillary’s vicious misconduct with intense disinterest. Trump’s response to the Khans was stupid and rude, but Hillary went beyond stupid and rude and accused Smith of lying.

Can an astonished American jaw drop, pass through the Hell of Earth’s molten core, and express righteous indignation in China?

Much too frequently, to the point of injuring his presidential prospects, Trump “talks awful,” demonstrating an inability to differentiate between inexcusable rudeness and the New York street moxie that marks his business persona. For this rhetorical misconduct he is fairly chastised.

Hillary, however, actually “does awful.” She commits a dreadful (and at times criminal) action with calculation and an unrestrained presumption of privilege. Her dreadful action is provable, having witnesses (grieving parents), or, in the case of her national security information crime, a feckless Jim Comey discovering evidence verifying her gross negligence.

But wowser.

A month later Hillary lies about Comey’s investigation.

Credit Chris Wallace with confronting her—but Hillary’s reptilian being scarcely blinks. She apparently believes that by October mis- and mal-informed voters will believe Comey exonerated her. Hillary believes Americans are stupid.

Which takes us back to the phrase “an unrestrained presumption of privilege.” After her awful deeds, so-called objective media—self-proclaimed media of record, by golly by damn—try their best to ignore her wrongs, or, that tactic failing, attempt to justify them.

In comparison, Trump faces the Khan tsunami—a genuine restraint. It is guaranteed he will face more tsunamis, throughout this election and, should he win, throughout his presidency.

But—will Hillary’s despicable, inexcusable, self-serving, mendacious and outright cruel treatment of grieving parents who lost sons in a battle with terrorists generate a similarly restraining media tsunami of equivalent intensity and outrage?

Based on the fact pattern: No. At best we’ll get a drip drip drip of sighs followed by a “move on, little to see here…”

Media Privilege. Disgusting isn’t it? You bet. Crooked? Media Privilege permits Crooked Hillary’s survival, so, yeah, it’s crooked. Harmful poison if swallowed by the American body politic? Damned straight it is. There’s a national security angle here lost on mainstream media toffs but not on American war fighters. Let’s frame the question bluntly: “Will major media—so called mainstream media—let a Republican Administration fight and win a war without going Peace Now?”

Media Privilege is a central subject in this election. The stark, evident and biased difference in mainstream media conduct wages war on honesty. A substantial plurality of the American people sensed it thirty years ago, now they know it. Truth be told, they’re sick of it.

How large is this plurality? I don’t know. I’m not sure anyone does. But they may be a majority of likely voters. Their disgust  with mainstream media bias and liberal Democrat Media Privilege are, collectively, Trump’s first election ace. This ace card is why The Donald may well emerge from the Khan tsunami—and emerge swimmingly.

*  *  *

Powerline’s John Hinderaker told PBS in 2007, “Anybody who’s in politics as a Republican knows that when you’re talking to a reporter, there’s probably somewhere between an 85 percent and 95 percent chance that you’re talking to a Democrat. I think that’s the basic reality.”

Powerline.com won accolades for its role in busting Dan Rather’s big time lie during the 2004 election. Remember? Rathergate where ole Dan and “60 Minutes” peddled fabricated documents alleging George W. Bush shirked National Guard duty? Ole Dan defended his documents as “fake but accurate.”

Out of such slime claims of objectivity still burble. Hey, in 2014 ole Dan and Robert Redford produced a movie, Truth, which continues to promote his damnable lie. The fake documents were Ole Dan’s story, not his allegation. But that’s Media Privilege with a Hollywood Privilege follow-on fraud.

Donald Trump’s genius political move was to go head-to-head with the Democrats’ Media Privilege and say To Hell! with anything the frauds threw at him—absolutely anything they threw, fraud charges or legit critique. Trump bet the mainstream media elites’ legacy of lies would dog them and theirs more than any mistake he might make. Pressure defense, baby, and pressure offense.

Donald Surber, author of the newly published book Trump The Press, understood Trump from the get-go: “His plan was simple: use the summer (2015) lull in news to dominate the cable news networks, and make the race a referendum on him.” (p.48)

According to Surber, Trump made several astute assessments based on inside experience with electronic media. Here’s Surber, at length:

“Trump copied the marketing plan that Aaron Spelling and Fox broadcasting used to make Beverly Hills 90210 a hit series. The series fin­ished in eighty-eighth place after its first season. But that summer, when the other networks showed reruns, Fox offered fresh episodes of 90210, which drew viewers and developed a following. The show moved up to forty-eighth place in its second season. Providing fresh material to the cable news networks in the summer boosted Trump’s ratings as well. He knew television better than its talk­ing heads did.”

Now for Media Privilege. Trump also “knew his audience hated the press as much as it hated Congress and both political parties. His criticisms of the press endeared him to the public. Battling the press made him a fighter, which was part of his attraction to the ignored rank-and-file Republicans: he fights.”

“I like him; he fights.”

Direct quote of Abraham Lincoln praising Ulysses S. Grant. Honest Abe backed Grant when media—especially Copperhead Democrat media in Union territory—portrayed Grant as a drunkard, a dummy, a failure.

If you are unfamiliar with the Copperhead “Peace” Democrats who opposed fighting and winning the Civil War, here’s a War On Honesty historical bonus.

Verily. Peace Democrat, man. Peace Now. Stop Abe In 1864, man. And continued slavery? Beside the point, man. Because Peace Now, man. And vote Democrat.

Indeed, the ugly Civil War legacy of anti-war Democrats. Now you know.

Back to 2016: Surber observed that Trump’s media strategy “was a high-risk strategy that worked because it separated him from the politicians.” Surber credits several pundits—Mark Steyn and Pat Buchanan in particular—with recognizing that Trump challenged opponents and media who would seize on any gaffe. Hark, another Civil War echo. Damn the gaffes, full speed ahead!

*  *  *

I asked Surber to evaluate the last 10 days of the 2016 presidential campaign. “Remember, he’s a rookie candidate,” Surber replied by email. “Trump will stick to his game plan and amend it as the campaign proceeds.”

He added, Trump “hijacked her convention. All this BS about the Russians was very entertaining to his supporters, as well as it linked the DNC emails to Hillary’s State Department fiasco.”

More: “Having learned nothing, Democrats will show her (Hillary) chirping in ads on news programs following one of his speeches. That’s what they do. That’s how they buy the ads. And it will backfire. Again. So what will they do after that? I have no idea. But so far, Trump is sticking to his game plan while amending it as he learns from the first half.”

What’s he learned? Based on his August 2 interview with Bill O’Reilly, he’s going to double down. Damn the gaffes.

*  *  *

Will it work?

Let’s return to the treason innuendo, to get a feel for the vast moral vacuum of Media Privilege Trump challenges.

As previously noted, on July 22—in what I suspect honest histories will describe as an act of political desperation—the Dems (led by Robby Mook) pivoted to Old Glory-waving display and creepy Joe McCarthyesque charges of treasonous collaboration with the Kremlin.

Alas, the Democrats are not the party of American defense and the American flag—and the American people know it, despite what the mainstream media may try to sell for the next two weeks.

Hence Trump’s second ace card in the election—the Democrat kowtow to Blame Amerika leftist antics and disdain for American soldiers, a 21st century echo of Civil War-era Copperhead Democrats. The Dems’ leftish-elitist kowtow is a fact pattern that began in 1968 with Bill Ayers, Pete Seeger Communist-kumbayah, Students for a Democratic Society screaming “Revolution now!” and street battles with Mayor Dailey’s Chicago cops.

1971—John Kerry accusing fellow soldiers of war crimes. 1983—the Euro-missile Crisis, totally manufactured by the Kremlin but the Dems claimed Ronald Reagan is a warmonger. 1985—Dems go gaga over Gorbachev. A man of the future! Reagan? He’s a warmonger. January 1991—Truman Democrat Les Aspin (bless his soul) and President George H. W. Bush finesse lefty Dems who want to let Saddam Hussein have Kuwait. (Theoretical overlay: blacks and browns bleeding blood for oil—yeah, that was the Copperhead claim. )

In 1993 Bill Clinton press aide Dede Myers told a general serving as a deputy national security adviser that “We don’t talk to the military.” Ouch—such an awful little snit she was. In 2007, as General David Petraeus prepared to brief Congress on the Iraq surge, Dems like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, in collusion with their friends at Media Matters and The New York Times advertising section, warned of General Betray Us. Ugly incident, that truly vicious attack on a serving officer. Then, 2008—terrorist Bill Ayers in reprise, now buddy buddy with Barack Obama! 2009—President Obama’s apology tour. American imperialist sins committed against Muslims. Cairo speech. Peace Now! Then the Russia Relations Re-set—with Vladimir Putin.

Hey man, we’ve a fact pattern, man, not innuendo. To say otherwise is to wage war on honesty.

Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media.

SEE ALSO: WAR ON HONESTY I, WAR ON HONESTY II, WAR ON HONESTY III, WAR ON HONESTY IV, WAR ON HONESTY V, WAR ON HONESTY VI, WAR ON HONESTY VII, WAR ON HONESTY VIII

Austin Bay is a contributing editor at StrategyPage.com and adjunct professor at the University of Texas in Austin. His most recent book is a biography of Kemal Ataturk (Macmillan 2011). Mr. Bay is a retired US Army Reserve colonel and Iraq veteran. He has a PhD in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

 

[Remius]

This is a pretty good breakdown showing why there is such a gap in the latest polls.


Fox news gives a pretty good breakdown by demographic. 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/03/fox-news-poll-clinton-leads-trump-by-10-points-both-seen-as-flawed.html

The key take away that I think is the crux of her lead is that although she is distrusted, she is still viewed as the more qualified and capable of the two.

We'll see what happens in the coming months. 

 

[tomahawk6]

This is a pretty good breakdown showing why there is such a gap in the latest polls.


Fox news gives a pretty good breakdown by demographic. 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/03/fox-news-poll-clinton-leads-trump-by-10-points-both-seen-as-flawed.html

The key take away that I think is the crux of her lead is that although she is distrusted, she is still viewed as the more qualified and capable of the two.

We'll see what happens in the coming months.

IGNORE the polls.They are meaningless this far out.There is a concerted campaign by GOP insiders along with the democrats to destroy Trump.Kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face.Obama was a college professor and activist before becoming President.He wasnt qualified to be President by todays supposed standard.At least Trump employs people in a multi-billion dollar company.Hate to say it but being President is OJT.

 

[Remius]

IGNORE the polls.They are meaningless this far out.There is a concerted campaign by GOP insiders along with the democrats to destroy Trump.Kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face.Obama was a college professor and activist before becoming President.He wasnt qualified to be President by todays supposed standard.At least Trump employs people in a multi-billion dollar company.Hate to say it but being President is OJT.

Oh it is early, but Fox news for the most part seem to not be anti Trump.  And this poll was conducted by them.  And while I agree that being the POTUS is more OJT than anything else, it does not change the fact that people will vote with the thought of who is better qualified to lead the country.    Doesn't matter if one is or not, it's how the voter will view that and that view I think is what has created a large margin between them in the polls.

There is a wide gap now and my point is that this poll seems to explain why.

 

[FJAG]

IGNORE the polls.They are meaningless this far out.There is a concerted campaign by GOP insiders along with the democrats to destroy Trump.Kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face.Obama was a college professor and activist before becoming President.He wasnt qualified to be President by todays supposed standard.At least Trump employs people in a multi-billion dollar company.Hate to say it but being President is OJT.

The polls are what they are: a statement of current positions but not a predictor of the eventual outcome. Trends along the way, however, will become more meaningful as time goes on.

As to Obama's experience, I think that you are glossing over the fact that in the eleven years before he became president he was a state senator from 1997 until 2004 when he resigned to run for the US Senate, a position he held until 2008. That's eleven years working in legislatures and is a pretty decent level of experience for a president; in fact it's six more years than GW Bush had (no legislative experience but governor of Texas from 1995-2000)

Trump has no qualifications whatsoever. Being an employer does not mean one have experience in dealing with government. Trump's experience is mostly in dealing with municipal level agencies and financial institutions and those dealings were with a focus on Trump's self-interest and not the public's.

Look. I also come from the side that one could do much better with respect to the political elite that makes up our North American political systems (and I include without reservation the cabals who currently run Ontario and Canada). I also believe that the right businessman/woman could do the job; but not Trump. The man is the apitimy of everything that is wrong with the US business elite; narcissistic, greedy, selfish, and without any empathy for those of his subcontractors, investors in condos, students at his university etc etc. I fully understand that there is a portion of the US public who wants to teach the political system a lesson but unfortunately with Trump they would probably be harming themselves more than the system.

:cheers:

 

[larry Strong]

Succinctly stated      :goodpost:


Cheers
Larry

 

[FJAG]

"Military veterans demand Republicans unendorse Trump and his 'ignorance'

Group of veterans visit Capitol Hill to present petition to Senator John McCain urging him and other Republican leaders to disavow presidential nominee John McCain. One military veteran said during the visit to Capitol Hill: ‘Senator McCain, please be brave and courageous as you have in the past and please rescind your endorsement of Donald Trump.’

The backlash against Donald Trump escalated on Thursday as angry US military veterans arrived on Capitol Hill urging Republican leaders to withdraw their support for the party’s nominee.

The protest came after a torrid week for the maverick candidate, whose criticism of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of an American Muslim soldier killed in Iraq in 2004, triggered a Republican revolt.

The veterans presented a petition on Thursday to the office of Senator John McCain , a Vietnam war veteran and former prisoner of war who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. McCain joined the condemnation of Trump this week, but stopped short of withdrawing his endorsement of him.

“Donald Trump and his surrogates have demonstrated that their bigotry and hate speech know no bounds,” Nate Terani, the first Muslim American to serve in the US Navy Presidential Honor Guard, told reporters. “Donald Trump is a racist and bigot and wholly unfit for this position.”

Terani and other veterans gathered under trees on a lawn outside the US Capitol building, urged McCain to put country before party and “unendorse” the nominee. They said their petition had more than 100,000 names in less than a day, including veterans, their families and ordinary voters.

Alexander McCoy, a former sergeant in the marines, said: “Donald Trump’s reckless ignorance about America’s responsibility to the world shocks me to the core ... I am done listening. I have heard enough. Senator McCain, you served and you sacrificed in ways Trump cannot begin to understand. You have heard enough too.”

Jim Lyons, a former nuclear machinist mate 2nd class in the navy, added: “He sows hate, fear and division ... His bigoted and racist and divisive remarks are not taken lightly by those on the receiving end of them ... From one veteran to another, Senator McCain, please be brave and courageous as you have in the past and please rescind your endorsement of Donald Trump.”

And Crystal Cravens, an ex-army sergeant, said: “When Trump attacks the Khan family, he attacks all military families who have lived experiences that Trump will never know. Trump’s message seeks to divide our country, and a nation divided against itself cannot stand.

“Do not be afraid to condemn this man; he does not represent what this country stands for. Senator McCain, please stand with your fellow veterans, good men and women who sacrificed themselves for this country.”

The petition on MoveOn.org was started by Perry O’Brien, who served as a medic in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and was discharged as a conscientious objector in 2004. “Every vet I know is absolutely outraged,” he said on Wednesday. “Trump is someone who clearly does not share core American values and the values that we in the military hold dear: respect, sacrifice, selflessness.

“When he said he’s always wanted a Purple Heart, it showed he doesn’t know what a Purple Heart is. It’s like saying: ‘I want to be shot in the face’ or ‘I want to be blown up’. He doesn’t have a certain awareness that there are some things you don’t do or don’t say in this country. Even George W Bush knew not to personally slander a gold star mother.”

Trump received five deferments – four for university, one for medical reasons (heel spurs) – from the military draft for the Vietnam war. O’Brien, an organiser of the #VetsvHate campaign and Common Defense political action committee, added: “I’ve heard a lot of Vietnam veterans joke: ‘Thank God he got a deferment and I didn’t have Donald Trump at my back.’”

Asked about the prospect of Trump as commander-in-chief, O’Brien remarked: “His recklessness, his instinct towards authoritarianism, his unhealthy attraction towards dictators – all these things raise questions. Why would a soldier go to fight knowing that, if they’re killed, President Donald Trump would slander their family? Who would enlist knowing he would attack their mother if she disagrees with him?”

During rallies, Trump has repeatedly stressed his support for the military and pledged to improve conditions for veterans. A Fox News poll, based on interviews with 1,022 randomly chosen registered voters from 31 July to 2 August, found him still leading Hillary Clinton among veterans by 53%-39%. But the survey also found that 77% of voters are familiar with the exchange between Trump and the Khans, and 69% describe his attacks on the family as “out of bounds”.

The Khans appeared at the Democratic convention last week. Brandishing a copy of the US constitution, Khizr Khan criticised Trump’s plan to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country and said Trump has “sacrificed nothing and no one”. Trump hit back by denigrating the Khans on Twitter and in television appearances, including suggesting that Ghazala Khan did not speak on stage because “maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say”.

His attitude towards the Khans – known as “gold star” parents because of their loss – seems to have crossed a line for some. David Callaway, a former Marine corps physician who served in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003, said: “For me it boils down to this: when you are in the military, you swear this oath and it’s service above self. For Trump, it’s all about service to self.

“He has never served any other cause except for his own greed and wealth, and for veterans the idea that this man would support and defend the constitution and the ideals on which our country was founded – that being liberty, equality, opportunity – initially was comical and now it’s just frightening.”

Callaway, 42, from Charlotte, North Carolina, added: “There’s no longer anybody who can make a rational argument that he’s just being unpredictable or he’s trying to keep our opponents on their toes, or he wants to spice up the debate. He’s just a petty demagogue and he will attack anybody at the slightest provocation and that’s not who we need as the commander-in-chief of our military.”

A friend, Dan McCready, served in the marine corps from 2005-09, and was then an inactive reserve, rising to captain. “In my view, Trump is the greatest threat to our constitution and our democracy of my lifetime, and people must view this as a final straw,” the 33-year-old said.

“I think a lot of Americans are living in a Facebook and Fox News distortion field. What I hear from many friends who are conservative is that Clinton is just as bad, that people view the selection as two equally bad choices. I think if you look at the facts and draw your information from reasonable sources, what Trump is doing and what he said is a thousand times worse than what Hillary has done and what Hillary has said.

“It makes me sick to my stomach,” McCready continued. “I think of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who gave up their one precious life for our country. He completely dishonours them. I think Mr and Mrs Khan represent what’s best about America and his belittling them, it really makes me sick.”

Not everyone agrees. In a response to questions from the Guardian posted on the Veterans for Trump website, the webmaster, Michael Kelly, said: “I struggle to understand how so much media attention is given to Mr Khan and virtually nothing given to Pat Smith and Charles Woods [parents of soldiers who died in the 2012 Benghazi attack who have criticised Clinton]. No, I still support Trump over Clinton.”

He added: “Donald Trump displays the ‘rugged individualism’ that makes America great. He exemplifies leadership qualities that I came to admire during my 23 years of military service.”

On Wednesday, Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman who is a veteran of the Iraq war, said he cannot support Trump in the wake of the row. “I don’t see how I get to Donald Trump anymore,” he told CNN. “Donald Trump for me is beginning to cross a lot of red lines of the unforgivable in politics.”"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/04/us-military-veterans-donald-trump-petition-john-mccain

:cheers:

 

[muskrat89]

To be fair, there's lots of veterans who have endorsed trump too...

 

[cupper]

To be fair, there's lots of veterans who have endorsed trump too...

Tomorrows headline:

Trump creates split within the Veteran Community

[

 

[tomahawk6]

Hillary announced yesterday that she would tax the middle class more. :-[

http://www.newsmax.com/DeroyMurdock/middle-podesta-kaine-tax/2016/08/04/id/742193/

Standing before am adoring crowd in Omaha on Monday, Hillary Rodham Clinton read from her teleprompter and shouted:

“I’m telling you right now, we’re going to write fairer rules for the middle class, and we are going to raise taxes on the middle class.”

The Democratic presidential nominee did not correct that statement, nor had her campaign, at this writing. Clinton’s official website claims that she wants to offer “tax relief to working families,” although it says nothing about tax cuts for Americans who are single, childless, or both.

As of now, Clinton is on record as advocating tax hikes on America’s middle class.

 

[Remius]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/05/politics/clinton-trump-ivanka-cabinet/index.html

I can't really say I didn't see this coming.  His kids are actually are one of his better assets in this campaign.

Interesting to see if this takes off or if it was just a passing comment.

 

[The Bread Guy]

... just a passing comment.

Trump?  Never ...  >

 

[vonGarvin]

As to Obama's experience, I think that you are glossing over the fact that in the eleven years before he became president he was a state senator from 1997 until 2004 when he resigned to run for the US Senate, a position he held until 2008. That's eleven years working in legislatures and is a pretty decent level of experience for a president; in fact it's six more years than GW Bush had (no legislative experience but governor of Texas from 1995-2000)

Apples and paper clips. 

GW had executive experience for those years.  And I would offer that Mr Obama's experience as a legislator actually hindered him in his job; he's executive branch who acted as though he were legislative. 

Mr Trump's experience as a CEO isn't worthless regarding his potential as POTUS.

 

[The Bread Guy]

GW had executive experience for those years.  And I would offer that Mr Obama's experience as a legislator actually hindered him in his job; he's executive branch who acted as though he were legislative. 

Mr Trump's experience as a CEO isn't worthless regarding his potential as POTUS.

When you put it that way, then the question becomes:  is political experience less or more important (best to understand how a system works before you try to "execute" within it) than executive experience (best to know how to make things happen before you try to make things happen in a new environment) for a president?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

When you put it that way, then the question becomes:  is political experience less or more important (best to understand how a system works before you try to "execute" within it) than executive experience (best to know how to make things happen before you try to make things happen in a new environment) for a president?

Good corporate managers surround themselves with SME's. The nuts and bolts belong to them. They are the ones that navigate the machinations of the system.

Truth be told, it might be good to have a person with business acumen as POTUS, instead of pure politicians.

 

[cupper]

Truth be told, it might be good to have a person with business acumen as POTUS, instead of pure politicians.

If by business acumen you mean multiple bankruptcies, several failed business ventures, countless litigation for failure to pay legitimate debts, and questionable financial practices, then Trump is your man.

 

[CougarKing]

Something these GOP members will regret if Trump wins?

Reuters

In slap at Trump, some wealthy Republicans campaign for Clinton

By: Olivia Oran and Amanda Becker, Reuters
August 5, 2016 9:43 PM

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON - Groups of wealthy Republicans unhappy with Donald Trump have been privately courting prominent peers to join them in backing Democrat Hillary Clinton's US presidential bid, several people involved in the effort told Reuters.
They say they are seeking money and endorsements from other Republicans disillusioned by Trump, their party's candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Some have received encouragement from Clinton and members of her campaign staff.
(...SNIPPED)

 

[CougarKing]

I once saw a Newsweek political cartoon that parodied a General MacArthur quote by saying "Old Soldiers never die... They just go on CNN"

Marine Corps Times

Former Joint Chiefs chairman: Retired generals shouldn't speak at political conventions


Retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is arguing that retired general officers should not endorse political candidates.

In a letter to the Washington Post, Dempsey wrote that retired Marine Gen. John Allen and retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn crossed the line by speaking at the Democratic and Republican conventions, respectively.

Dempsey took issue with Allen and Flynn being introduced at the political conventions as general officers, not private citizens.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[mariomike]

I once saw a Newsweek political cartoon that parodied a General MacArthur quote by saying "Old Soldiers never die... They just go on CNN"

Marine Corps Times