Some consider the Nation’s Capital as “Fantasyland on the Potomac”. Other outsiders are “Fed Up” with the Federal City. It's better to consider D.C. as “the District of Calamity” (sic).
Reacting the North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R-NC) signing HB2 "The Bathroom Bill", the National Basketball Association has threatened the Tar Heel State that Charlotte is in jeopardy because the law discriminates against transgendered persons from using whatever bathroom they feel like visiting at that time.
Other sports leagues have threatened to boycott places to pressure governments to change their laws, like the NCAA's 15 year ban on South Carolina hosting sporting events over the Confederate battle flag flying on state capitol grounds in Columbia, or the NFL threatening to move a Super Bowl from Arizona over the state enforcing federal law on illegal immigration. It is curious to see how the NBA is going to great lengths to protest this "discrimination" of people having different genitalia using separate waste evacuation facilities which has been in place for generations and is rife for confusion and abuse. This sort of progressive pressure again demonstrates that sports has been politicized by the tyranny of liberal fascism.
According to Politico, Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump repeatedly confused the names of Dr. Ben Carson with President Barack Obama while at a South Carolina rally.
Trump's crowd corrected him and this one one time that the Donald did not double down on a mistake and he quickly corrected himself on the stump, yet the Manhattan mogul slipped up again.
In the swing of the primary fight, campaigning for President is exhausting. It is understandable that one might make a verbal miscue, especially with names that sound alike. Even former Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) would interpolate Obama's name with Osama bin Laden, despite his eventual strong support of Obama's Presidential campaign.. But such a faux pas is premised on a something that seem alike--by sound, character or sight.
Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has successfully generating lots of earned media coverage by being a bombastic loose cannon who may launch an "F" bomb at any time. This may thrill those Trump supporters who are always spoiling for a down and dirty fight and who abhor political correctness, but it has also driven Trumps unfavorable rating to over 60%.
This circus campaign strategy worked well before voters started casting ballots. But as the race became serious and is focused in the Bible Belt, this boorish bluster does not play so well.
In fact, Trump promised not to use foul language on the campaign trail. This promise lasted about twenty minutes, as Trump relapsed into crass asides later in the same speech.
Opponents are eager to capitalize on this Trump shortcoming. Thus, Ted Cruz opined: "It is not a good thing if parents would be embarrassed to have their children repeating the President." Last week, the Cruz campaign released a video ostensively about "Eminent Domain", but the puerile playtime imitating Trump with chagrined parents watching reinforced themes rebuking crass campaigning, which certainly would include profane politicians
If polls are to be believed five days before the South Carolina primary, Trump has a commanding 20% lead. But one needs to parse political polling to discern its true worth. And South Carolina has a history of making sudden shifts at the last minute.
The Republican South Carolina primary will be held on Saturday Feburary 20th 2016.
That sounds like a satirical piece from The Onion. Alas, that really happened. Trump has earned loads of earned media during the early primary process by making outrageous and inflammatory outbursts.Trump's military strategy was the equivalent of bombing the fecal matter out of ISIS. Trump has also whispered the "F" bomb from center stage.
In the eve of the New Hampshire primary, when Trump was critiquing his main opponent Senator Ted Cruz's approach on enhanced interrogation, the Manhattan Mogul gleefully repeated a vile and vulgar shout out from the crowd referring to female genitalia. This was a quintessential example of Trump employing paralepsis, in which a speaker says something with plausible deniability. Later, Trump justified his crass comments that we were just having fun. Sure.
But if we are to believe Trump's Baton Rouge Pledge, the GOP front-runner will no longer use foul language. Some have argued that the quip against Cruz was intended to be short for pussillanimous. If so, why pretend to chide the shout out not to use the language with a smile?
It is a sad statement of the state of Trump's campaign that a populist politician has to shout it out to the rooftops that he will swear off foul language. So why the sudden shift?
Much of Trump's appeal to die-hard supporters is that he can't be bought since he claims to be self-financing his campaign (but won't turn down contributions). That being said, Trump does not hesitate to pander, to questionable effectiveness.
In several early primaries, such as Iowa, South Carolina and five of the SEC primaries, evangelicals make up a substantial proportion of the Republican electorate. So it's no surprise that politicians hungry for evangelical support would play up faith themes on the hustings.
Well, this was not a believable ploy for Trump, especially with his "Two Corinthians" citation at Liberty University. But this voter bloc should be more than properly quoting Bible verses. They also tend to be values voters. And a foul mouthed, avarice animated politician is a hard sell to those seeking to walk the faith.
The Cruz campaign sought to capitalize on this crucible with a clever ad mimicking Trump themes from the mouths of babes.
The spot successfully captured the crassness of Trump with boorish behavior without putting foul words in the childrens' mouths. But the telling shot was the parents watching the playroom with a voice over "We wouldn't tolerate this behavior in our children--why would we want them in a President?" Thus the commercial was more than about illustrating crony capitalism and eminent domain but about values voters, which is a bulleye in South Carolina with a 60% evangelical GOP voter base.
Let's see how long Trump can stifle his crass asides. As the SEC primaries are on March 1st, I suspect it will be March second (sic) if we are lucky.
December 21st was the last day for filing to be on the 2016 South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary ballot. It is no coincidence that it was the same day the Senator Lindsey Graham dropped his quixotic campaign to be the GOP POTUS nominee.
Aside from absorbing accolades from the press corps in several of the under-card Republican debates, Lindsey Graham has been a non-entity in the Republican Presidential Campaign. The only place in which he excelled was consistently coming in last place all year in The Blaze's monthly Presidential Preferences among Glenn Beck listeners.
It is questionable if Senator Graham ever had a realistic pathway to primary victory in the GOP. His best hope would have been to win as a favorite son in South Carolina and parlay primacy in the Palmetto State into Big Momentum going in the nine SEC primaries the week afterwards. At that point Graham might have held some sway with delegates if there was an open Republican convention in Cleveland. Still those were pretty impossible dreams.
Alas, Graham only garnered 0.5% in most national polls and perhaps 4% in his home state of South Carolina. Graham presumably did not want to be thought of like Gov. John Connolly (D/R-TX) who famously spent $10 million to win 1 delegate in South Carolina during the 1980 cycle.
Even though Graham won re-election to his third term in South Carolina in 2014, a colossal failure on the Presidential Primary stage might be a memory which loomed large in a state where he was considered a weak incumbent and only took 55% in the 2014 General Election.
Aside from ego, Graham seemed initially driven to strengthen the American military, especially during a time of war. Some might suspect this issue oriented campaign was meant as a counterbalance to a more neo-isoloationism espoused by his libertarian Republican rival Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). However, Graham shifted to taunted Donald Trump from the small debate stage. He may calculate that his absence in the Republican field will allow his Senate sidekick, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to make a more consequential endorsement for the New Hampshire primary, which McCain won in 2000 and 2008 so his word may carry some weight.
Besides, Graham's reputation for warning "We're at war" along with his 30 plus years service in the National Guard may make him a candidate to be Secretary of State in a prospective Jeb! or maybe Marco Rubio administration, particularly if the Graham endorsement is timely and effective.
