Heather
Dagobah Resident
On Trump, and Trump's speech:
No matter what you think of the guy, he's a very colorful character. Although I didn't see the entire speech, what I saw of it was very entertaining. He's actually something of a comedian when you think about it. And a good story teller. He certainly is never boring, even when his thoughtlessness at times makes you want to cringe -- although he steered clear of cringe worthy comments during the portion I watched.
What I've noticed about Trump over the years is that he really seems to make transparent much of what goes into the job of being president: the deal making (of course, since that's his specialty), but also his assigning responsibility -- in the case of Covid-19, the degree to which he spoke of his relying on the [not always] good sense of the countries' governors, for example. And if he's guilty of crudely lambasting all opponents, he's also very generous in giving credit where credit is due.
Trump's use of Twitter is unprecedented, of course. You certainly never saw Obama doing that. And in that he breaks down what in acting is called "the fourth wall," so that he seems to be talking to you personally, which also lends an air of "transparency" to his presidency. On the downside, his "thinking out loud" has often gotten him into far more trouble than had he thought things through before blindly reacting with a tweet. But these very human foibles are also what make those who support his presidency love him all the more. It's that they can identify with the man.
One of the commentators after the speech said it took Trump some time to get up to speed. Actually, he put the blame on Pence, for some reason (who was also in charge of attendance, interestingly enough). He said Trump really should have had Ivanka there directing things. I came in somewhere near the middle, where he was looking quite comfortable, and doing a humorous routine about this treacherous, stainless steel ramp he needed to descend after a recent engagement involving the military (apparently, this [very humorously described] descent down this treacherous ramp got Trump a real going over by the MSM). Another commentator noted that a good story teller will have a good villain he keeps referring to, which Trump invariably does. And actually, when you think about it, Trump has had the "lamestream media," "fake news," the "do nothing Dems" play this role for him very successfully for nearly four years now.
No doubt Trump and his team will re-group and trouble shoot this last attendance debacle. I do think he has the support out there, but, as we all have seen here, these are incredibly trying times in which anything can happen. He's certainly not taking it for granted that he'll win, though. After all, these rallies were seminal to his winning in the last election, and so he's not resting on his laurels -- which was clear in some of the comments he made yesterday. But, as for his ability to win the crowd, I saw no sign of that diminishing.
No matter what you think of the guy, he's a very colorful character. Although I didn't see the entire speech, what I saw of it was very entertaining. He's actually something of a comedian when you think about it. And a good story teller. He certainly is never boring, even when his thoughtlessness at times makes you want to cringe -- although he steered clear of cringe worthy comments during the portion I watched.
What I've noticed about Trump over the years is that he really seems to make transparent much of what goes into the job of being president: the deal making (of course, since that's his specialty), but also his assigning responsibility -- in the case of Covid-19, the degree to which he spoke of his relying on the [not always] good sense of the countries' governors, for example. And if he's guilty of crudely lambasting all opponents, he's also very generous in giving credit where credit is due.
Trump's use of Twitter is unprecedented, of course. You certainly never saw Obama doing that. And in that he breaks down what in acting is called "the fourth wall," so that he seems to be talking to you personally, which also lends an air of "transparency" to his presidency. On the downside, his "thinking out loud" has often gotten him into far more trouble than had he thought things through before blindly reacting with a tweet. But these very human foibles are also what make those who support his presidency love him all the more. It's that they can identify with the man.
One of the commentators after the speech said it took Trump some time to get up to speed. Actually, he put the blame on Pence, for some reason (who was also in charge of attendance, interestingly enough). He said Trump really should have had Ivanka there directing things. I came in somewhere near the middle, where he was looking quite comfortable, and doing a humorous routine about this treacherous, stainless steel ramp he needed to descend after a recent engagement involving the military (apparently, this [very humorously described] descent down this treacherous ramp got Trump a real going over by the MSM). Another commentator noted that a good story teller will have a good villain he keeps referring to, which Trump invariably does. And actually, when you think about it, Trump has had the "lamestream media," "fake news," the "do nothing Dems" play this role for him very successfully for nearly four years now.
No doubt Trump and his team will re-group and trouble shoot this last attendance debacle. I do think he has the support out there, but, as we all have seen here, these are incredibly trying times in which anything can happen. He's certainly not taking it for granted that he'll win, though. After all, these rallies were seminal to his winning in the last election, and so he's not resting on his laurels -- which was clear in some of the comments he made yesterday. But, as for his ability to win the crowd, I saw no sign of that diminishing.
