From the Virginian Pilot:
John Baer: Trump's first 100 days got a boost from Democrats
President Donald Trump’s first 100 days got an assist, however unintended, from the opposition party.
And that’s because Democratic leaders, through words and action, have shown that they haven’t learned lessons from Campaign 2016.
Once Trump took office, they engaged in the same old play-to-the-base and self-indulgence that helped them lose the election; that fosters division, precludes consensus and deconstructs any argument that they (unlike that other party) are solely about serving the public good.
In the first 100 days, they helped him in at least four ways.
One: Their action regarding the nomination of now-Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. It was reactionary and wrong.
Yes, Republicans walked in darkness by refusing to give President Barack Obama’s high-court choice, Merrick Garland, even a confirmation hearing. The nominee was qualified. The GOP abused the process. Democrats screamed foul.
But if it was wrong to oppose a fit nominee in 2016, it was wrong to oppose one in 2017. An opportunity to show partisan restraint was lost. Forcing a Senate “nuclear option” blew up Democrats’ chance to strike a blow for compromise instead of hollow political retribution.
Two: Democratic National Committee chief Tom Perez’s recent assertion that it is “not negotiable” that “every Democrat” support abortion rights. Plain stupid.
It tears at the fabric of the party’s touted multicolored quilt of inclusion so often used to contrast “closed-minded” Republicans. It’s the base-playing that Trump plays. It tells independents that Democrats are no less ideologically rigid than Republicans.
Dumbass. The lust for power is not an ideology. It is a way of life for every fascist and we have lost the will to destroy them.
Three: Hillary Clinton, back on the speaking circuit, saying at a San Francisco speech in March: “Now is the time to demand the progress we want to see.”
Actually, last year was the time. Many thoughtful Democrats who can’t abide Trump believe that Clinton — not Russia, not FBI Director Jim Comey — had more to do with Trump’s win than any single factor, including Trump.
Reminders of Clinton’s campaign and post-campaign assessments — such as this from the March speech: “There was a recent study showing that none of my plans were really publicized or talked about, so that gives me something for speeches for at least a decade. … I will never stop speaking out” — don’t exactly help her party move on. And such reminders refuel Trump loyalists.
Four: Barack Obama’s decision to cash in (further) by charging $400,000 per speech. As he might say, “C’mon, man.”
As an ex-president, Obama already gets a taxpayer-funded staff, security, a $207,000 pension (about half his presidential salary) plus expenses, which can run to six figures.
And, as reported in March, he and former first lady Michelle Obama snagged book contracts with Penguin Random House paying $65 million-plus.
When is enough enough? I know, all perfectly legal, as American as can be. But there’s something distasteful, no matter who does it, in using public service for personal gain. In this case, it doesn’t help Obama’s brand or, by extension, the brand of his party as it seeks to recapture working-class voters.
None of this is to dismiss Trump’s many serious shortcomings 100 days in. You can assemble your own list. But assessments of Trump at this stage should be weighed in concert with assessments of the opposition, even though the opposition is out of power.
Being without power is not the same as being without purpose or principle. Right now, it’s hard to find much of either in “the party of the people.” And that, so far and going forward, is a plus for Trump.
From the Salt Lake Tribune comes a Dana Milbank piece regurgitated from Washington's other newspaper:
Here's one genuine achievement of the Trump administration's first 100 days: The president, it seems, has come to realize he is in over his head.
"This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier," he told Reuters in an interview this week. "I do miss my old life. I like to work so that's not a problem, but this is actually more work."
I'll save you the trouble, kiddies. Dana, the ugliest chick in the AmeriKKKaLast Media, thinks Orange Clump is a moron and she's going to prove it to you beyond any doubt with the orange pervert's own words! How about that? Pretty clever of her, no?
If only Dana and her ilk had given a damn about the madness and stupidity of the fascists she likes, maybe Clump would still be in New Jersey trying to steal the homes of little old widows and not playing at being leader of the slightly less un-free world.
I can empathize. Having Donald Trump as president has been hard on all of us.
A week earlier, he told the Associated Press of a related discovery he made during his first 100 days: The U.S. government is big.
"I never realized how big it was," he said. "Every decision is much harder than you'd normally make. ... So you know, I really just see the bigness of it all."
So what does he do now that he is in a job that is so hard running a government that is so big? He pretends. He has developed an elaborate fantasyland in which everything goes according to plan. All of the following statements, which I have assembled with an assist from the work of Post fact-checkers Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, are Trump's own words; none is entirely true.
This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine. No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days. [Rep.] Elijah Cummings [D-Md.] was in my office and he said, "You will go down as one of the great presidents in the history of our country." He said "you will be the greatest president in the history of this country."
I have great relationships with Congress. The Republican Party has various groups, all great people. And I have a great relationship with all of them. I like Ted Cruz, he's a friend of mine. One of the best chemistries I had was with [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel. We had unbelievable chemistry. And people have given me credit for having great chemistry with all of the leaders.
We've only been here for a tiny speck of time, and what I've done with regulations ... is amazing. I think we've done more than anybody for this short period of time. More has been done in the last six weeks than has been done in years with the previous administration. We have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine. Covers, nobody's had more covers.
Despite what you hear in the press, health care is coming along great. We are making great progress with health care.
We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban. You had Delta with a massive -- a massive problem with their computer system at the airports.
This wall is not going to be that expensive.
I don't know Putin. I have nothing to do with Russia. The Russia story is a total hoax. I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election.
I didn't know Steve [Bannon]. If there's a shutdown. It's the Democrats' fault. I think the losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Now, they own Obamacare. If something happens blame him [federal judge James Robart] and [the] court system.
I've been against the war in Iraq from the beginning. You look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden.
We are sending an armada, very powerful.
When you talk about currency manipulation, when you talk about devaluations, they [China] are world champions. They're [China] not currency manipulators.
I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. We ended up winning by a massive amount. No, no, you have to understand, I had a tremendous victory, one of the great victories ever. The failing @nytimes was forced to apologize. Between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused me to lose the popular vote.
They say I had the biggest crowd in the history of inaugural speeches. It looked like a million, million and a half people. It was almost raining ... but God looked down and he said, we're not going to let it rain on your speech. And then it became really sunny.
The 100 days is just an artificial barrier. It's not very meaningful. But we've done a lot. Somebody put out the concept of a 100-day plan. But yeah. Well, I'm mostly there on most items.
Twitter, @Milbank
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
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