Light On Dark Water

It’s very strange–sort of like the election is a situation comedy.
AMDG

Horrible but accurate observation. “And Thursday night it’s more madcap fun as The Donald decides to run for president!” [laff track] I guess that’s not the vocabulary of TV ads anymore but mutatis mutandis (or however that goes).

Daniel Nichols

I know; I joked that a Trump candidacy would be a good thing, as it would be comical plus it would siphon off the Stupid Vote, right off the bat. But then some polls are showing Hairball in the lead, which means I totally underestimated the numbers of stupid people in America. Which is itself stupid at this late date.

Francesca

I am not supposed to read newspapers in Lent, and saw the news in an old paper I took from the cafeteria to put down for my cats’ tablemat. I have to admit the unworthy thought promptly crossed my mind that Aberdeen house prices might soar if the guy who owns the (putative) golf course there was President of the USA. I still own my flat there, because prices were down when I left. I repressed the thought as unworthy, of course, but also as ridiculously unlikely. So, as Dan says, if the guy even has an innings it will tell us something pretty bad about the state of the nation.

Jesse Canterbury

Throughout the 2000 election campaign, Dave Letterman was doing a skit in which he would simply say, “and now for our presidential election round-up,” and then the band would play “Who Let the Dogs Out?” while the show’s announcer, Alan Kalter, ran around the stage, through the audience, sometimes outside the building, etc., doing various weird things, like taking off his clothes, putting on costumes, and so forth. Never lasted for more than a minute or so. I thought it was a great kind of interpretive dance about the campaign, and I’ve felt it was just as appropriate in many of the following elections. This one is shaping up to be no exception.

We’re approaching the condition anticipated many years ago by the Firesign Theatre, where a candidate’s ads said “Vote for N — he’s not insane!”
I don’t actually think there’s much chance at all of Trump getting the nomination, but he certainly has the potential to make life miserable for the Republicans. I expect the Democrats would be giving him money if he didn’t already have way more than they do.

Art Deci

Throughout the 2000 election campaign, Dave Letterman was doing a skit in which he would simply say, “and now for our presidential election round-up,” and then the band would play “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
The candidates who competed passably that year were George W. Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Albert Gore, and ‘Bill’ Bradley. Mr. Gore has a history of opportunism appended to some odd fixations. Mr. McCain had been through an unedifying divorce twenty years earlier. That aside, why would you have referred to these men as ‘dogs’?
I totally underestimated the numbers of stupid people in America.
I can think of one you haven’t tallied.
Actually, Trump is a most accomplished man, if quite vulgar. The problems he would likely face would be that the politicians he would be negotiating with have different motives than businessmen and that public bureaucracies cannot be manhandled the way a business apparatus can be. If he is like other big-time New York businessmen who have tried their hand at politics (e.g. Messrs. Golisano and Hirshfeld), the body of social thought to which he subscribes (such as it is) is likely quite haphazard, leaving him vulnerable to the designs of others.

“I can think of one…”
That’s an unnecessarily harsh response. Gentlemen will please refrain.

As for Letterman’s dogs, he was hardly alone in thinking the candidates in 2000 were a pretty unimpressive lot, at least with respect to the office they were seeking.

Daniel Nichols

Not to worry, Maclin. I am sure Artie was talking about himself. He will be pleased to know that I had already counted him.

Art Deco

As for Letterman’s dogs, he was hardly alone in thinking the candidates in 2000 were a pretty unimpressive lot, at least with respect to the office they were seeking.
There is a difference between failing to impress a comedian and being a ‘dog’.
What is your conception of the ‘office they were seeking’? Gen. Eisenhower was fairly singular (and had at that point shuffled off to his retirement in Gettysburg nearly forty years earlier). In the interim, the ‘office they were seeking’ had been occupied by John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and W.J. Clinton.

I’m not a fan of Letterman–in fact I’m an un-fan–but I thought that use of the song was funny.
I don’t care to hash over the merits and demerits of the 2000 candidates, but your list of presidents causes me to reflect on the strength of the system. I’m surprised you left out Jimmy Carter, btw.
You were speaking well of Thomas Sowell the other day. Have you seen this? ‘Radio-talk-show host Mark Levin has rebroadcast Trump’s varied and mutually contradictory statements on political issues and personalities over the years. It was a devastating revelation of Trump’s “versatility of convictions,” to use a phrase coined long ago by Thorstein Veblen.’
Trump seems to be more promoter than true entrepreneur as exemplified by, say, Gates and Jobs. Both those terms denote capitalists, but there’s a significant difference of emphasis, and in the way they make their money.

Art Deco

Mr. Carter made policy errors and was unprepared to attempt to deal with our wretched federal legislature. He did not suffer abnormal character defects manifest in his public life (Nixon), his domestic life (Kennedy) or both (Johnson). It is also very difficult to discern just what were the motors of many of our presidents outside of some purely self-centered concerns. Not Carter’s problem, I do not think, though I have known one wise head who disagreed.
Re Trump’s contradictory statements. Mr. Trump is a business school graduate without much liberal education. His tremendous energy has been devoted to real estate development (and exhibitionism) for decades. It was the same deal with Thomas Golisano, a master salesman whose schooling stopped with community college. I doubt either has the kind of mind which can process a political question in any reliable way. You might have noticed the most able man of business among our presidents was George Bush – pere, another man who often embarrassed himself with his public statements. Some talents do not go together readily.

I would describe Carter’s problem as a defect of competence rather than character. I don’t think he accurately discerned the nature of the various situations he faced. Though he has a very strong streak of self-righteousness which I think has grown worse since he left office.
I don’t think Bush I and Trump resemble each other very much in their difficulties with public statements–the difficulties seem very different, and seem to me to have less to do with their being businessmen than with their basic personalities. The former I think is just naturally inarticulate, the latter a bigmouth.

Jesse Canterbury

FYI, I thought the Letterman thing was hilarious because when I thought of “who let the dogs out,” I thought of a generally chaotic mess of beings, running around barking at each other, and not necessarily convincing anyone (including each other) of any one individual’s merits. This interpretation was, I felt, supported by the random weirdness of Kalter’s dancing around, etc. Never thought of the skit as referring to the candidates as actual dogs, which seems…nonsensical. But even if it had — it’s a comedy show.

“…a generally chaotic mess of beings, running around barking at each other…”
Yeah, therein lies the humor. And it helps that the song seems slightly cracked.

Janet

There you go! The curse of the dog people!
I love it when two threads collide.
AMDG