Monday, August 20, 2018

Max Boot Is Right About Trump, But Wrong About Hillary

In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which Max Boot pondered what would make Trump supporters turn on their man, I was struck by this passage:

Despite everything that’s happened, he could, I’m sorry to say, win reelection. Don’t forget Trump’s top talent: tearing down rivals. A large part of the reason he squeaked out a slim electoral-college majority in 2016 was that he was so good at turning a distinguished and thoughtful former first lady, senator and secretary of state into a caricature known as “Crooked Hillary.” Right now, Trump is being judged in a vacuum. Wait till the Democrats nominate someone to run against him and he starts flinging insults.

Boot is absolutely right to say that Trump's greatest talent is tearing down rivals. But he is wrong to characterize Hillary Clinton as "a distinguished and thoughtful former first lady, senator and secretary of state". There was nothing distinguished and thoughtful about how Hillary handled Benghazi or the e-mail scandal much less when she said she was going to throw coal miners out of work. What was distinguished or thoughtful about calling Trump supporters "deplorable" and "irredeemable"? Let's also not forget that Hillary Clinton is the worst retail politician in history who enjoyed campaigning about as much Kanye West enjoys silence and quiet reflection.

Sure, Trump knocked Hillary down a few pegs. But she inflicted most of the damage on her own. It's going to be difficult for Democrats to knock off Trump in 2020. Its incumbent that they nominate someone who can absorb Trump's insults like teflon. 

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