In the last 48 hours or so, CNN has cranked out a number of editorials pertaining to Twitler. Simple enough subject, certainly. They also did one on Roger Goodell, so I will loop that one in, too.
The first editorial is about his (many!) character flaws, and their impact on his handling (I cannot say governing) of things.
The opinion, by John Harwood, contrasts him with predecessors like FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, Reagan, Dubya, Obama and Nixon. In each case, his character is compared with the others and found wanting. The article has quotations by Peggy Noonan as bookends.
The first…
‘In a president, character is everything.’
The last …
A president doesn’t have to be brilliant, he doesn’t have to be clever. You can hire clever. But you can’t buy courage and decency, and you can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him.
More below.
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The second editorial, by Chris Cillizza, is about the election and his ‘chaos’ presidency.
The article writes about a Sunday NBC-WSJ poll (linked in the article, I am not linking it separately) representing the widespread perception (80-15%) in the country that things are out of control.
That is bad news for Trump. No one likes to feel as though their world is rapidly spiraling out of control. And they like it even less when it feels as though their top elected leader is making that chaos worse rather than better.
And here's the problem for a chaos president: When people want stability and calm, you have no idea how to provide it to them.
Of course he has no idea how to provide it. He’s 73 years old and has never had such a concern in his life. Worse, he doesn’t care to provide it. It reflects on them for wanting it, not on him for not providing it.
The third article, by Richard Galant, is about his ‘most self-defeating move.’
It is about his church photo op stunt last week. Of course, it was pure him. Callous, cynical, hypocritical, manipulative, insincere, following catastrophic decisions to make it possible.
But, simply, in my book, it wasn’t his most self-defeating move.
That was when he became a candidate for a position for which he held zero qualifications. And for which he hasn’t spent a single second working toward qualification in all of the time, since.
The fourth article, by Dean Obeidallah, hypothesizes if he were to say certain words … (Black Lives Matter), well, maybe things could get better.
His avoidance of the term isn’t accidental, of course. His pandering commitment to his bigoted base isn’t going to stop because Obeidallah would like for that to happen. He would have to admit that he had been wrong, in order to take that path, and his ego would never let him do that.
Obeidallah concludes with:
Of course black lives matter — and it’s time we had a president who not only said those words but implemented policies to ensure they do. Hopefully, these protests will lay the groundwork for both.
We are determined, of course, to guarantee that the president says those words AND lays that foundation. But it won’t be during this administration. It will have to wait for Joe Biden to do it.
And, finally, one Goodell opinion piece is here, written by Jeff Pearlman.
There’s no question that Goodell’s June insight isn’t remotely adequate, of course. He offered Colin Kaepernick NOTHING. Neither has he insured that the league would protect players if owners like Jerry Jones retaliate against players for legitimate protest.
Here is the closing paragraph of the piece:
The NFL can apologize and apologize and apologize some more, but until it actually starts hiring large numbers of African American coaches and executives and until it acknowledges that Colin Kaepernick was deliberately blackballed and until it stands up to the bully in the White House the next time he goes on one of his racially charged Twitter rants, we can only see the league for what it is.
Broken
You can see that it very pointedly leaves out the racist in Dallas. (The prominent NFL team owner one, that is, I do realize that many more racists live in Dallas.)
But I disagree with that takeaway. Broken isn’t the word I would use. Useless, cowardly, convenient, insincere … all of those come, for me, before broken.
It has been interesting to see that Twitler has attacked Goodell for the inadequate apology. I don’t think Goodell will change again, in the face of that, but he hasn’t been courageous either way, and I wouldn’t support him for his dubious ‘stand,’ even if T is on the other side.
I like some of the work being done by The Lincoln Project, but not remotely enough to donate to them. I confess I get some Schadenfreude watching him squirm in response to their fairly effective trolling, but he’d have never reached where he is if they had been more effective, earlier. If they had exhibited more conscience and better judgment, earlier. If they hadn’t enabled movements LIKE his in that hideous party for many years, if they hadn’t supported many candidates like those supporting him now, propping him up now.. So, no, they won’t get a penny from me. But Joe Biden will. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And Georgette Gomez (CA-53), Yuh-Line Niou, (NY State Assbly-65) and Lucy McBath (GA-6), all candidates endorsed by Elizabeth Warren. And Jaime Harrison, right here. And Mark Kelly. And Sara Gideon. And John Hickenlooper. And Cal Cunningham. And Amy McGrath. And as many others as I can afford.
Thanks for reading. On to tonight’s comments and Tops, formatted by brillig. (In your debt once again dear friend.)
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From indyada:
Sometimes autocorrect provides a better word. Yoshimi's response to samanthab got inflected. This occurred in today's Abbreviated Pundit Roundup.
From dragonwerx:
DK member fishburger beautifully condensed a complex thought into a simple statement. I recommend this for Top Comments.
And a highlight:
cadem highlighted this one by NorthBronxDem, in kos' Trump is even more toast than last week, as his approvals continue to plummet
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