TRUMP’S APPROVAL NUMBERS CONTINUE TO SLIDE
Posted: June 26, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentI don’t know who will win the Presidency in November 2020.
But right now, Trump’s polling in battleground states are bad news for him.
Additionally, Trump’s national favorable numbers continue their slide while his unfavorable numbers head north.
South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune can read the polls, too.
That is why Thune has called on Trump to use a different tone than the current divisive and combative one that comes natural to him.
Thune knows Trump is good with his rock-solid base of the mostly pale, male and frail.
But Thune also recognizes that if Trump is to have a chance at winning in November 2020, it is essential for him to broaden his appeal to swing, moderate and undecided voters in battleground states.
Thune went on to say that Trump would benefit from using a more empathetic tone.
Is Trump capable of doing this?
Elements of Trump’s reelection campaign (Jared, Ivanka, others) will put empathetic sounding words into Trump’s teleprompter.
Trump would read them in his now familiar bloodless, monotone style that reveals the most inauthentic of all the Trumps: Telepromptered Trump.
But just as the sun always rises in the East, Trump would revert to Real Trump, the Trump that habitually manically Tweetstorms attacks on his enemies (real and imagined) in the middle of the night while America sleeps.
Senator Thune can read the polls and understand what they mean for Trump’s reelection campaign; the question is: Can President Trump?
SEBASTIAN GORKA: A CASE HISTORY OF HOW YOU CAN MAKE A GOOD LIVING TELLING PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR
Posted: June 10, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Since Donald Trump glided down that golden escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his candidacy for president, folks in Right Wing Infotainment smelled an opportunity and heard the ‘CHA-CHING!’ of the cash register.
Accordingly, FOX News, talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and a swarm of web sites like Breitbart, Gateway Pundit and The Federalist saw Trump as the goose that lays the golden eggs in the form of ratings and revenue, clicks and cash.
What’s the secret sauce of Right Wing Infotainment?
Put another way: What is the business model of Right Wing Infotainment?
Noted Stanford economist and commentator Thomas Sowell sums it up nicely:
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”
To sell pillows, gold, nutritional supplements, survival food kits, weight loss potions, erectile dysfunction medications, baldness cures and catheters, Right Wing Infotainment’s business model is to confirm their audience’s biases, tickle their ears, and tell them what they want to hear.
Left Wing Infotainment does something very similar, but that’s for another post.
One of Right Wing Infotainment’s more shameful (and shameless) figures is former White House employee and current pro-Trump talk radio host Sebastian Gorka.
Case in point: Sebastian Gorka used to speak in glowing terms about President Trump’s former Secretary of Defense, Marine general James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis.
But then Mattis committed the unforgivable sin in Trumpworld of writing a commentary that was critical of Trump.
So Gorka, knowing his paycheck depends on him telling his pro-Trump audience what they want to hear, obliged with a scathing commentary of Mattis.
Does Gorka believe the critical words he wrote about Mattis?
I don’t know Gorka’s heart, but noted conservative author, speaker and commentator Jonah Goldberg recounts the times he’s been in the green room at FOX News, chatting with Republican congressmen and others who’ve told him off-camera that they loathe Donald Trump and hate what he’s doing to the Republican Party, but then when these same folks get in front of the camera, the put on the red MAGA hat and sing Trump’s praises.
For many in Right Wing Infotainment, being pro-Trump is a shtick, a gig that enables them to keep their jobs in front of the camera or behind the microphone or keyboard.
Gorka’s motivations and actions are aptly described by Miles’ Law:
‘Where you stand depends on where you sit.’
(Hat tip to Erick Erickson for the combined tweets/images).
Marshall Power Locke 