What's your reaction to the current "spin" first floated by Corey Lewandowski last week that the problem with the press is that they take DT's words too literally? I'm still trying to wrap my feeble brain around that one.
Best,
Gordon
PS: FWIW, I don't consider MSNBC, the NYT or the Washington Post to be unbiased.
I'm not going to pretend that I know why Trump says the things he says. But I suspect that Corey has a point to a certain extent. If you look at the leaked emails and what the Clinton campaign managers were saying about others, you can tell how people talk when they aren't in public or on record. They were calling Bernie a dufous and referring to New Mexico governor Richards as both a "needy Latino" and a "dick". They walked all that stuff back and said they really didn't mean it and some of it was said in the heat of the moment. In other words, don't take them "literally". They were even saying some not so polite stuff about Hillary, especially when it came to how she was handling her email scandal. This just goes to show how normal people sometimes talk when they let their guard down. These same people make the rounds on the news shows and don't say anything of the sort when making public statements.
Trump, seems to say things that pop into his mind without using a filter that most people do. I don't think this is always good, but at least you know where he stands, he doesn't seem to hide much. He was saying things about others like those in the Clinton campaign were discussing in private, and just made his thoughts public. In one of the leaked speeches that Hillary did, when she was discussing the middle class, she remarked, “I'm kind of far removed, because the life I've lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy.” She would not have dared to say such a thing at one of her campaign rallies. Romney too seemed to be almost embarrassed to discuss his wealth when he was campaigning, but Trump just came out and said stuff like, "look at me, I'm wildly successful and stinking rich".
Also, (and someone said on here that he ran his campaign just like he discussed in his book "Art of the Deal"), I would imagine being a career businessman and not a career politician, he starts with the best possible circumstance, knowing he'll compromise his position later. I never thought he would have a "big beautiful wall" crossing the whole border of Mexico, and I never thought we would be witnessing trains loaded with illegals taking them back to Mexico and beyond. I don't think Trump did either. But if he reaches a deal to build a wall to strengthen some areas, increases security where there is no wall, kicks out the criminal element within the illegals, and ends the sanctuary city nonsense, then I think that is the compromise he probably wants. Had he started out with that as his first position instead, the compromise would have resulted in something less than that.
So that's my opinion. He lacks the filter that most people have when speaking in public. But is there really a difference between saying something in public as opposed to saying the same sort of stuff when you think it's hidden among friends? And perhaps he starts with outlandish positions from the start, but knows that won't be the end point. So I never really took him literally on much of what he has said either, but I suspect many did.
I am not a cheerleader for Trump. I'll let you know what I find disturbing. It disturbs me about how he talks about Putin and what economic ties he might have to Russia. Putin is a bad actor, we should have already been tougher with him and now are we even going to give him more space? I am also a bit of an environmentalist. I don't focus on global warming, for me the argument just lies in pollution in general. So his cavalier attitude towards the environment causes me a good bit of concern. But I also never thought destroying our economy for the sake of stopping a percentage of a point in warming in a couple of decades was a good thing either. There should be a middle ground in there some where.
But Trump hasn't even been sworn in yet. I'll make my judgement about him when I actually see the direction the country is going. I hope I like more things than I don't. I do think he has the "potential" to end up being very good for the country, only time will tell.