2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumTeam Trump struggling with the easy stuff
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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/team-trump-struggling-the-easy-stuff?cid=sm_fb_maddow
Team Trump struggling with the easy stuff
07/15/16 04:31 PMUpdated 07/15/16 05:05 PM
By Steve Benen
When a major-party presidential campaign undergoes the process of scrutinizing potential running mates, its incredibly difficult. Pulling together a list of candidates, combing through their backgrounds, evaluating the political costs and benefits to each, its all quite challenging, even for experienced teams of professionals. Put an erratic, easily confused amateur at the top of the operation, and it becomes that much more difficult.
But once a running mate is chosen, everything is supposed to get much easier. Schedule an announcement, register a website, design a logo, and prepare for the convention. Piece of cake. Candidates for national office deal with a variety of demanding tests; this isnt one of them.
So how in the world is Donald Trump managing to screw this up so badly?
On MSNBC today, Kelly ODonnell reported on details that further undermine confidence in the presumptive Republican nominee:
Now, its worth noting that campaign officials have pushed back against these reports. Then again, its clear that sources close to the candidate are telling several major news organizations about Trumps uncertainty and desire as recently as last night to undo what was done.
Is there anything about this process thats reassuring? Trump made a decision, then wondered if he could get out of it. Trump scheduled an announcement, then delayed it, then made the announcement anyway. The logo is the subject of ridicule. The campaign neglected to register the necessary url domain names. Even the conventions finances and speakers list is a mess.
Has any of this gone right? This is the kind of administration voters can expect for four years?
Of course, its not just today. Trumps staff is a mess. His field operation is an embarrassment. His campaign finances arent much better.
Its usually at about this point when conservative readers ask, Oh, yeah? Well if Trumps entire campaign operation is such a joke, why is he only trailing Hillary Clinton by a few points? Shouldnt this be a blowout if he and his team are so incompetent?
These are perfectly legitimate questions, and the truth is, the vast majority of Americans dont know or care that Trump is a bad candidate whos completely incapable of overseeing a functioning political operation. Much of the mainstream has some sense of Trumps message and theyre either prepared to support it or not.
The fact that Trump cant even introduce his running mate without slipping on a banana peel may be a very bad sign, but for much of the country, its also political minutiae.
The broader question, however, is whether theres a breaking point at which Team Trumps dysfunction catches up with them. In crunch time, when the candidate and the party need to execute an effective plan to win the White House, and the GOP ticket is up against real political pros, will the fact that neither Trump nor his staff have any idea what theyre doing pose a problem, or will tens of millions of Americans just not care enough to be bothered?
Its a political-science case study playing out before our very eyes.
kimbutgar
(21,137 posts)sofa king
(10,857 posts)AntiBank
(1,339 posts)I am glad he didnt pick Grinchy
for all his faults he can be a powerhouse rhetorician when the moon shines right and he grabs the limelight
of course he also can go batshit cray cray like last night
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)is actively promoting Trump as the lesser of two evils.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)who is the greater?
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)That is a right wing site. No progressive site would promote Trump. Nor allow anyone on their site to do so.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)So far leftwing the have become right wing.
And lots of misogyny over there as well.
Their hate has blinded them.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Can they be any more incompetent?
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)ChvrchLover @tomasjpino
LMAO!! This is genius! I must have this shirt. #TrumpPence