From a Republican strategist upset about the state of the primary race:
We’re potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly isn’t fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament to do the job. It’s not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?
So there you have it: The only thing worse than electing Hillary Clinton president is the possibility of not electing Hillary Clinton president.
A few hours later, as if to prove this guy’s point, Donald Trump staged a 95-minute meltdown (video above) apparently brought on by the ungodly strain of making four campaign appearances in four days:
He said he would “bomb the s—” out of areas controlled by the Islamic State….He accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of playing the “woman’s card,” and said Marco Rubio is “weak like a baby.” He signed a book for an audience member and then threw it off the stage….And he spent more than 10 minutes angrily attacking his chief rival, Ben Carson, at one point calling him “pathological, damaged.”
Gone was the candidate’s recent bout of composure and control on the campaign trail….An hour and 20 minutes into the speech, people who were standing on risers on the stage behind Trump sat down. The applause came less often and less loud. As Trump skewered Carson in
deeply personal language, a sense of discomfort settled on the crowd of roughly 1,500. Several people shook their heads or whispered to their neighbors.
Carson wrote in his autobiography that as a young man he….[tried] to stab a friend, only to have the blade stopped and broken by the friend’s belt buckle….Trump said he doesn’t believe Carson is telling the truth and questioned how a belt buckle could stop a blade. He stepped away from the podium and acted out how he imagined such an attack would happen, with his own belt buckle flopping around.
….And yet Carson is doing well in the polls, Trump said in disbelief. “How stupid are the people of Iowa?” Trump said. “How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?”
I remember a lot of people wondering how Trump would handle things if the time came when he was no longer leading in the polls. I guess now we know. It’s too much for his ego to stand, and the phenomenal self-discipline he’s been showing recently is utterly shattered. Can you imagine what Trump would be like if he ever had a genuinely stressful job, like, um, you know?
POSTSCRIPT: For three months, all the other candidates have been shaking their heads and muttering, “I’m losing to this guy?” Now Trump knows how they feel. And I don’t really blame any of them. Trailing either Trump or Carson is enough to make anyone start to doubt their own sanity.
