Author: craigcrawford

Trump had so much trouble taking punches in last night’s debate you have to wonder why it took so long for his rivals to start pounding so hard. For the guy who has staked his game on being authentic Trump actually revealed his phony side, prevaricating issues from fraud lawsuits against his sketchy university to his refusals to release off the record news interviews. His thin skin was melting down.

GOP debate 9pm ET on FOX News, live stream at fox.com

Rebellious Renee serving popcorn.

Joe Scarborough on Romney vs. Trump: “If he wants to stop Donald Trump he should have run against him. A speech is just a speech is just a speech, and it’s only going to make Donald Trump stronger. … calling Trump a phony and a fraud is just going to have everyone asking, then why were you so desperate to get his endorsement four years ago.”

Jim Webb on MSNBC “Morning Joe” 7:40am ET Friday.

David Gergen on CNN last night: “Trump has a whole lot of voters turning out who are dissatisfied, angry and feel betrayed by the establishment. And now the leaders of the establishment are coming out and saying we don’t give a damn what you think, we really don’t care. We are going to put our own person in there” 

“This was an establishment that insisted Donald Trump take a loyalty oath, that you must be loyal to the person who emerges in the party, that’s what we expect of you. But is there any loyalty being shown to Trump now that he has emerged?” 

“I do think he has the possibility of morphing into something. I think he could be housebroken before this is over.”

You know you are in trouble when Mitt Romney is your last resort. Republican elites, having watched their supposedly golden retriever Jeb Bush turn into dog poop, are now anticipating Romney’s plans to blast Trump in a much hyped speech tomorrow. Who let the dogs out? Who? Who?

Are Democrats about to make the same mistake Republican leaders made, underestimating Donald Trump, ridiculing his supporters and dismissing what appears to be the political phenomenon he has created?

Well, Dems did it those many years ago when laughing off Ronald Reagan, as his own party elites had done to their dismay.

Trump won the optics last night against Hillary and that should be a warning sign for Democrats, commanding far more TV air time by taking sometimes hostile press questions in his victory appearance, compared to Clinton’s reliance on a teleprompter speech obviously written by aides who were plagiarizing the Sanders message.

If the apparent failure of Republican elites to stop Trump is a lesson for Democrats, get this: ditch the teleprompter, forget the conventional empty rhetoric and understand, replicate the colloquial language of the modern TV age. And most of all do not indulge in the personal insults against him that only seem to strengthen him.

In other words, don’t fight his game. Create your own, so long as it is outside the box.

Optics that communicate traditional politics are deadly in a marketplace of voters who truly despise the status quo of our brain dead institutions.