There’s been a lot of reaction to the news that Peter Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit (which has led to a $140 million award) against Gawker. Thiel is, of course, not only a Silicon Valley billionaire, but a man of strong, if idiosyncratic, libertarian views. Hence, it’s ironic that he illustrates some of the […]
Donald Trump
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
The Huffington Post and Donald Trump
By July 17, 2015, the Huffington Post had seen enough of Donald Trump’s campaign. Their editorial director Danny Shea and their Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim published a remarkable announcement that read: “After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won’t report on Trump’s campaign […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Buchanan Calls Trump “The Great White Hope”
A lot of people have suggested that Donald Trump’s candidacy this year is heir to the Pat Buchanan campaigns of the 1990’s – including Buchanan himself. The former candidate provided his explanation of Trump’s appeal in an appropriately titled article: The Great White Hope. Buchanan starts off by referring to the much-discussed (and little-understood) research […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Those Who Can’t Afford to Forget
Recently I linked to an important article by Charles Pierce titled: When We Forget. The 2016 presidential campaign—and the success of Donald Trump on the Republican side—has been a triumph of how easily memory can lose the struggle against forgetting and, therefore, how easily society can lose the struggle against power. There is so much […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Chris Christie to Lead Trump Transition
Donald Trump has tapped New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to head up his transition team, should he win the November presidential election. “Governor Christie is an extremely knowledgeable and loyal person with the tools and resources to put together an unparalleled Transition Team, one that will be prepared to take over the White House when […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Fighting With Their Tentacles Tied Behind Their Backs
It’s easy to forget that this campaign began with a major corporate backlash against Donald Trump’s speech announcing his candidacy for the presidency. For example, Macy’s severed their relationship with Trump because they didn’t want to be associated with a man who was calling Mexican-Americans a bunch of rapists. They later tried to soften their […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
GOP: You Had One Job
Chris Cillizza makes a good point on the Electoral College when he points out that it was a major challenge for the Republicans way before they chose Donald Trump as their nominee. In fact, I don’t think the reporting on this has been very good, in general. There’s often acknowledgement that the RNC did a […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
The Party That Set Out to Destroy Government
Back in the 1980’s, President Reagan famously said, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem.” But as Norman Ornstein said recently, Newt Gingrich took that to a whole new level. As a brand new member of the House, he had a full-blown theory of how Republicans could break out of […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Could Trump Put Georgia in Play for Democrats?
It’s no great insight that the Republican Party is in serious trouble. The presumptive GOP nominee is openly at war with the party’s establishment, which is trying to determine whether to embrace him or or pretend he isn’t running at the top of the ticket. But just how bad is it? Bad enough that even […]
Posted inPolitical Animal, Politics
Trump Can’t Win. But Clinton Could Lose By Ignoring America’s Desire for Change.
Donald Trump is probably the weakest general election nominee in modern history. His negatives are through the roof among almost all but conservative white men, and he would have to outperform Mitt Romney’s numbers among blue-collar whites by double-digit margins. Short of some outside force like a major recession or terrorist attack, there is practically […]
