My early favorite for a 2016 Golden Duke Award.
Though he wouldn’t bribe anyone?
This is how he would.
Threats of violence.
Offers of bribery.
Make America Great Again!
jw1
“Trump’s vile New York values: How The Donald represents the worst of a great city BY Garry Kasparov SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, April 17, 2016, 5:00 AM”
" I got my first glimpse of Donald Trump during my very first visit to New York City in 1988. To a 25-year-old Soviet chess champion, the flashy tycoon with his glamorous wife Ivana walking through the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel, which he had recently purchased, was the embodiment of my illusions about what was then to me a new and glamorous Western city. To someone like me, who had read a lot about America but experienced little, Trump seemed very impressive, a symbol of the wealth and opportunity, and of the capitalist West.
Trump owned the Plaza; the Plaza was a symbol of New York; New York was a symbol of America.
Looking back on that chance encounter in light of this year’s presidential campaign, after nearly 30 years of visits and living in New York City, I realize that I was taken in by the same con game that Trump is still running today. Trump sells the myth of American success instead of the real thing."
wouldn’t passing out envelopes of cash be faster and cheaper… there is some precedence for it… hire John Boehner… he has some experience with it and he might be looking for a job…
This would be entertaining if it wasn’t so sad that he’s just exposing what we’ve always know about politics.
This is actually a perfect move for Trump. Make a big show without laying out any real cash. Every uncommitted delegate has to now be thinking (yes, I’m assuming that COP delegates are generally venal and small-minded) about how they’re going to get some Important Person Time with the Donald and VIP treatment in expensive places, if only their vote is the one that puts him over the top.
Rump really doesn’t understand how the game is played. While there are bound to be some delegates who are taken in with free round trip air fare to Mar-A-Lago to sit in a jacuzzi, I think a whole lot more want cold hard cash. Look at it like this: these delegates have to work with the Party after all this. If they’re gonna sell their votes, then they’re probably going to want lots of money for their treachery, not just what amounts to a day spa from a cheap 1%er.
Just for the sake of argument, how is that different from saying “you’re going to benefit from this free wall I’m going to give you”?
Shorter Trump: You pikers don’t want to get into a bribing contest with me.
SCOTUS: This is legal. Money is free speech. You can buy any amount of free speech you want. Its called Citizen’s United.
Scalia: You better believe it.
Trump’s campaign won’t end money in politics bit it will expedite the end of the delegate system and moves us towards the popular vote deciding the election
I think it’s heading towards it and I really hope so. He is inciting his base, which is vociferous and white to the harsh realities of our unfair voting system. All the power to him. Popular vote ought to be enough. Media will join him in his crusade.
Rachel Maddow had a segment on this. Long story short, there is no federal law against bribing delegates who aren’t public officials. However, there is an OHIO law that makes it a crime for a delegate to accept a bribe for their vote. So giving money outright would not work. Giving someone a house or paying for their kid’s college tuition would probably be illegal. So anyone who wants to bribe a delegate would have to find a way that isn’t an obvious bribe.
I hope there are a lot of GOP delegates who are very offended by this. A job in the administration is one thing, Some pork for a favored project is another, but an outright tacky bribe? I’d be offended.
Someone should start a rumor that Trump is promising trips to Mar-a-Lago and give out Paul Manafort’s phone number.
I’d be offended that he thought I could be bought so cheaply, C’mon, a round of golf?
Many years ago, I was on a week-long cruise. There was a retired couple at our table, who started complaining about the food, service, and so on, the first night out, and complained louder and longer every day. The rest of us at the table were dumbfounded, because none of their complaints had any connection to reality – the food and service were outstanding. It was only later that I realized the complaining couple was working themselves into a rationalization for stiffing the restaurant wait staff at the end of the cruise – which, of course, they did.
Trump seems to me to be doing the same thing – he’s winding himself and his supporters up, rhetorically, to walk away from the GOP in a huff. Whether that means running as an independent or simply walking away entirely – while assuring himself and everyone who will listen that he’s actually too good to be president – I don’t know. But that sure seems like what he’s doing.
Come to think of it, those nasty, bigoted retired people on the cruise were also from New York. Hmmm.
Saw that same spot. And according to this piece on the law, it also bans “intimidation” and “coercion” of delegates, something Trump has already strayed into with his threats of violence and Stone’s rap about releasing the hotel information of delegates who screw the campaign. I’d think these latest statements would make Trump a potential target for law enforcement…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/obscure-ohio-state-law-could-shake-republican-convention-174028109.html?ref=gs
You can bet your bottom dollar that not only Trump but Cruz and possibly Kasich are already working the delegates with different promises and enticements.
Just about all systems are corrupt because they are systems. It isn’t the fault of the system, it is the swindler that learns how to game it and does. This is what corrupt people do. They need to be penalized and there needs to be strong deterrents in place that make the risks to cheat unworthwhile.
I joked yesterday that Trump should just bribe all of the delegates and win his way. It’s kind of a Freudian thing that he would bring it up.
Liars think everyone is lying to them and thieves think that everyone is trying to steal from them. The fact that this is where Trump’s thoughts go says exactly what Trump is.
Good point. Your post brought to mind a thought I had about Josh’s most recent editor’s post.
The GOP has spent the last several years hammering home to their base the notion that all sorts of unfair voting practices are going on and thus allowing Democrats to “steal” elections. They’ve feigned outrage over nonexistent voter fraud, gotten their voters riled up, and attempted to or enacted increasingly crushing voter ID laws. That has fostered intense anger and worry about the sanctity of their vote and that of others.
GOP voters have basically spent several years being primed against accepting the kinds of things the RNC is now openly discussing as possibilities to avoid nominating Trump. The ideas the RNC and others are floating are anathema to their base. That’s why it’s probably true that even those who are dead set against Trump still believe he should win the nod even if he’ll lose the election. In their minds, this is ultimately about the fairness the GOP has repeatedly claimed to want to preserve. So, if the powers that be take this thing from Trump it will be seen by the base as yet another betrayal, as another instance of the kind of hypocrisy that’s driven so many to support outsiders like Trump, Cruz, and Carson.