President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Well, FWIW, this guy says that Bannon was surprised:

Steve Bannon thought he wasn't giving an interview

 

Eh, that's cover for him.

He knew.

 

Bannon just thought he was "leaking" not speaking. Honestly, what is the point of having a Comms Director, except to have someone to fire when someone says something anonymously.

 

I also think the "leak" was Bannon saving his job. Hell, doesn't sound like it was that long of a conversation, but a) it drew attention away from Charlottesville b) put the focus on China/North Korea (highlighting Kim's concession) c) distanced Bannon (and Trump) from the Nazis with the dismissive remarks d) will probably keep Bannon in the West Wing for the foreseeable future. It was just crass enough to be seen as a gaffe and become "a thing", not too crass to cost him his job. Pretty brilliant move.

 

After LBJ signed a bunch of civil rights laws, Republicans won five out of the next six elections and would have run the table if Nixon hadn't been a dumbass running up the score with Watergate. But I'm glad Johnson sacked up and did the right thing, plus wasn't scared to talk about it. At a certain point if we're too scared to talk about what is clearly right and wrong, then we're a shit country and deserve to fall.

 

Mostly on target but I don't think the GOP holds onto the White House in '76, even if Watergate never happens. The GOP certainly didn't have any heir-apparent figure waiting in the wings after Nixon.

Pretty much everybody considered Spiro Agnew a complete boob, definitely including Nixon, who had quite pointedly avoided allowing Agnew to do anything that might have established him as a successor.

 

Reagan gave Ford a helluva scare in 76. Maybe he wins, moves everything up four years, then leaves town at the beginning of 85 with his mind mostly intact.

 

Maybe, maybe not. Ford was running damaged from the get-go in '76, due to the pardon of Nixon, which allowed both Reagan in the primaries, then Carter in the general, to attack Ford as tainted by Nixon's corruption.

Without the Watergate scandal, Reagan probably can't make as much hay running against the "corrupt Washington machine."

 

Wasn't that Mooch's excuse? No way they're both that dumb.

 

I posted something along these lines earlier, but I really do believe Bannon about the white nationalists. I think he has a really particularized vision that dumb racists pick up and run with because it doesn't translate well to the masses. One of the people who is too stupid to process and articulate it is the President.

 

What is Axios? This is the second day in a row I have seen that site linked.

 

The ride never ends.