You can do what you want, but he was the right age for Vietnam, and as far as I can tell the closest thing he has to service is the stint he did in a military academy because his parents found him impossible.
I think of Donald Trump as the equivalent of a Ron Paul. He has found out that he can use a declaration of candidacy to raise a few issues but does not really want the office.
I think his remarks about McCain were un-called-for. McCain has said a few intemperate things, himself ("Wacko Birds"), which tends to mitigate the sympathy I would otherwise have for him.
In general, I think Republicans who tear one another down play into the hands of the Democrats, making fools of themselves.
...the closest thing he has to service is the stint he did in a military academy because his parents found him impossible.
As far as I can tell, it might have been his prep school. Then he had a number of college student deferments, and after graduation he got a medical deferment. I have no way of knowing whether the latter was illegitimate.
Student deferments weren't at all uncommon in those days; although with a draft number of 356, depending on the year, he might not have needed one. The first couple of years of that draft, they did go through the entire list. Nothing would have stopped him from volunteering, though.
My own draft number was 2, but I'd already committed to ROTC's POC program by the time that first set of numbers were assigned. It wouldn't have done me any good to "wait" a year (by being born a year later. I was six weeks late, as it was; waiting a whole additional year would have perturbed my mother); the next year my number would have been 1.
I'm happy to have Trump on the stage for the first couple of debates; if the other candidates will simply stand aside and ignore him, he'll make a nice, splashy implosion.
While SOME of Trump's remarks are voicing the thoughts of the common folk, MOST of them are self-promoting, bloviating, or flat-out wrong, as in the case of McCain. And yes, McCain should retire now to preserve what remains of his honor.
Given that not all the candidates in the Republican field are going to make it into the debates, I'd much rather have Carly Fiorina than Trump on the stage. I have concerns about her as President, based on what I understand about her performance at HP, but she is very articulate about the issues and would raise the tone of the discussion.
I'm supporting Jim Webb in the primaries, so the Republican field is a sideshow for me. I just think Trump's remarks show either a tremendous ignorance of the story of the American POWs in Hanoi -- which would be remarkable, given that McCain was the presidential nominee just seven years ago -- or a complete lack of judgment in matters of honor.
Trump's great virtue is also his great vice: he doesn't care what anyone thinks, because he has enough money to blow them all off. This does mean he's willing to bring up topics everyone else is afraid to talk about, which is an extremely good thing.
On the other hand, he is... Trump... which means he also says things like this. Most people would refrain from making a crack like this, if not out of decency then out of fear. Trump doesn't care and has no sense of decency, so he goes ahead and says it. Unfortunately, we don't get to choose a best-of-breed candidate combining, say, Trump's I-don't-care-what-the-media-thinks attitude with Cruz's basic decency with Ryan's respect for math.
(I think it was Steven den Beste who coined the best-of-breed candidate idea. His example was "combining Bill Clinton's charm with Bob Dole's erectile dysfunction". [Back in the days when Dole was a spokeman for Viagra.])
It's true that we don't. Although I'm not sure I've seen any evidence that he is showing any honesty in his brevity. Brevity is the soul of wit only if you're quick to speak the truth.
10 comments:
Yes I'm voting for Trump.
He is fun to watch and is refreshing.
You can do what you want, but he was the right age for Vietnam, and as far as I can tell the closest thing he has to service is the stint he did in a military academy because his parents found him impossible.
I think of Donald Trump as the equivalent of a Ron Paul. He has found out that he can use a declaration of candidacy to raise a few issues but does not really want the office.
I think his remarks about McCain were un-called-for. McCain has said a few intemperate things, himself ("Wacko Birds"), which tends to mitigate the sympathy I would otherwise have for him.
In general, I think Republicans who tear one another down play into the hands of the Democrats, making fools of themselves.
Valerie
...the closest thing he has to service is the stint he did in a military academy because his parents found him impossible.
As far as I can tell, it might have been his prep school. Then he had a number of college student deferments, and after graduation he got a medical deferment. I have no way of knowing whether the latter was illegitimate.
Student deferments weren't at all uncommon in those days; although with a draft number of 356, depending on the year, he might not have needed one. The first couple of years of that draft, they did go through the entire list. Nothing would have stopped him from volunteering, though.
My own draft number was 2, but I'd already committed to ROTC's POC program by the time that first set of numbers were assigned. It wouldn't have done me any good to "wait" a year (by being born a year later. I was six weeks late, as it was; waiting a whole additional year would have perturbed my mother); the next year my number would have been 1.
I'm happy to have Trump on the stage for the first couple of debates; if the other candidates will simply stand aside and ignore him, he'll make a nice, splashy implosion.
Eric Hines
While SOME of Trump's remarks are voicing the thoughts of the common folk, MOST of them are self-promoting, bloviating, or flat-out wrong, as in the case of McCain. And yes, McCain should retire now to preserve what remains of his honor.
Given that not all the candidates in the Republican field are going to make it into the debates, I'd much rather have Carly Fiorina than Trump on the stage. I have concerns about her as President, based on what I understand about her performance at HP, but she is very articulate about the issues and would raise the tone of the discussion.
I'm supporting Jim Webb in the primaries, so the Republican field is a sideshow for me. I just think Trump's remarks show either a tremendous ignorance of the story of the American POWs in Hanoi -- which would be remarkable, given that McCain was the presidential nominee just seven years ago -- or a complete lack of judgment in matters of honor.
Trump's great virtue is also his great vice: he doesn't care what anyone thinks, because he has enough money to blow them all off. This does mean he's willing to bring up topics everyone else is afraid to talk about, which is an extremely good thing.
On the other hand, he is... Trump... which means he also says things like this. Most people would refrain from making a crack like this, if not out of decency then out of fear. Trump doesn't care and has no sense of decency, so he goes ahead and says it. Unfortunately, we don't get to choose a best-of-breed candidate combining, say, Trump's I-don't-care-what-the-media-thinks attitude with Cruz's basic decency with Ryan's respect for math.
(I think it was Steven den Beste who coined the best-of-breed candidate idea. His example was "combining Bill Clinton's charm with Bob Dole's erectile dysfunction". [Back in the days when Dole was a spokeman for Viagra.])
It's true that we don't. Although I'm not sure I've seen any evidence that he is showing any honesty in his brevity. Brevity is the soul of wit only if you're quick to speak the truth.
Well, McCain did insult Trump by calling him 'crazy'. And trump returned the insult, with interest.
This is basically two old guys yelling at each other.
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